LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



©]^apE.I7-^'ipTOy ^^* 

Sheli'i-%74.. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



Story of Our Country 



A PRIMARY HISTORY 



UNITED STATES 



BY ^ 

ALMA HOLMAN BURTON 





CHICAGO NEW YORK 

Werner School book Company 



Copyriglit, 1896. by ALMA HOLMAN BURTON 




PREFACE 

It is the aim of this Httle book to awaken 
such an abiding personal interest in the story 
of our country, that tlie after-study in the more 
advanced history of tlie United States may be 
a pleasant task. 

The author has attempted, without undue 
boasting, to show how the many feeble colonies, 
remote from each other and planted under such 
different circumstances, united at length through 
common perils and sufferings to form the foun- 
dation of a national structure so broad and so 
firm that when the strain of revolution, and even 
of rebellion, came, it survived the shock. 

She has endeavored to keep well to the front 
the great central idea of the nation's develop- 
ment from the time when the first discoverers 
peered through the mists of an unknown sea, 
down to to-day, when our nation has taken its 
place among the first powers of the earth. 

The author has sketched many of the thrilling 
and picturesque biographies which are always 
such an unfailing source of delight to the child. 



4 PREFACE. 

The great discoverer, Columbus, has a goodly 
space allotted him. The courtier, the adven- 
turer, the priest, the puritan, the philanthropist, 
the acute statesman, the valiant warrior, the 
sturdy frontiersman, all pass in review before 
the mind of the reader; but it is hoped that not 
one of these personages disappears from the 
scene without having added something to the 
great national drama of which he was a part. 

Some space has been devoted to war, that the 
child may realize what it has cost to develop 
these United States. 

But military annals have been given a sub- 
ordinate place in the story. The young student 
should not lose sight of the fact that each 
struggle of the American people has been but 
a transient obstruction which, in the end, en- 
abled the nation to unite its forces yet more 
closely together for its great onward march of 
progress. 

The object for which The Story of Our 
Country has been written will have been at- 
tained if its readers may be led to adopt the 
words of Daniel Webster, that eloquent exponent 
of patriotism, who said: "I am an American; I 
will live an American; I shall die an American." 

March 31, 1896. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER. PAGE. 

I. Early Discoverers 9-15 

II. Columbus Discovers America 16-27 

III. Americus Vespucius and Balboa 28-30 

IV. Spanish Settlements 31-37 

V. English and French Voyages 38-42 

VI. French vSettlements 43-47 

VII. Dutch vSettlements 48-53 

VIII. English Voyages and Discoveries 54-58 

IX. Settlement of Virginia 59-63 

X. Maryland and the Carolinas 64-68 

XI. The Pilgrims 69-75 

XII. Settlement of Connecticut 76-79 

XIII. Settlement of New Jersey and Delaware 80-83 

XIV. Settlement of Pennsylvania 84-87 

XV. Settlement of Georgia 88-92 

XVI. Life in New England 93-99 

XVII. King Philip's War 100-104 

XVIII. The Indian Confederacies 105-116 

XIX. Troubles with the French . , 117-126 

XX. The French and Indian War 127-131 

XXI. Canada Becomes an English Province 132-136 

XXII. Taxes on the Colonies 137-141 

XXIII. The First Continental Congress 142-146 

XXIV. Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill 147-151 

XXV. The Declaration of Independence 152-158 

XXVI. Battles on Land and Sea 159-166 

XXVII. A Permanent Union Formed 167-172 

XXVIII. Washington's Administration 173-179 

XXIX. Administrations of Adams and Jefferson 180-189 

XXX. Madison's Administration , 190-198 

XXXI. The Era of Good Feeling 199-206 

XXXII. Development of the West 207-211 

XXXIII. The North and the vSouth 212-217 

XXXIV. The Civil War 218-224 

XXXV. From 1868 to 1S92 225-233 

XXXVI. The World's Columbian Exposition 234-238 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE. 

Adams, John 180 

Alhambra, The 17 

Arnold, Benedict 162 

Arthur, Chester A 232 

Americus Vespucius 28 

Baltimore, Lord 64 

Beaver Town 45 

Beavers 122 

Birthplace of Franklin 141 

Birthplace of Washington.. 124 

Bison or Buffalo 184 

Boone, Daniel 177 

Bunker Hill Monument .... 200 

Cabot, Sebastian 39 

Calhoun, John C 193 

Canadian, A French 118 

Carolina, Settlement in 67 

Carpenters' Hall 145 

Cartier, Jacques 41 

Centennial Building 228 

Chair, Gov. Carver's 72 

Charles II 84 

Church, Roger Williams', at 

Salem 79 

Church, Old North 148 

Church, Old Swedi.sh 82 

Clay, Henry 191 

Clermont, The (first steam- 
boat) 187 



PAGE. 

Cleveland, Grover 234 

Coach, Washington's 171 

Cod Fishing 40 

Colonist, A German, man... 87 
Colonist, A German, woman 87 

Colonist, A Georgia 90 

Columbus, Christopher 14 

Columbus,Statue atWorld's 

Columbian Exposition. 26 

Columbus, Tomb of 26 

Cortez, Hernando 32 

Costumes, Dutch 52 

Costumes, French 121 

Cotton Gin 213 

Cotton Plant 58 

Cradle of Peregrine White.. 95 
Crockett, Davy 198 

Davis, Jefferson 215 

De Leon, Ponce 31 

De Soto, Hernando 33 

Drake, Sir Francis 54 

Early Voyages, Map of 27 

Edison, Thomas A 229 

Elm-Tree, The Old 200 

Eskimo 223 

Faneuil Hall 151 

Federal Hall (1789) 170 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE. 

Flags 154 

Flathead Indian 107 

Franklin, Benjamin 155 

French Gentleman, A 46 

French Lady, A 47 

French Trapper, A 46 

Fulton, Robert 187 

Garfield, James A 231 

Gateway of St. Augustine. . 37 

Gauntlet, Running the 123 

Genoa 12 

George III 138 

Going to Church 71 

Grant, Gen. U. S 221 

Harrison, Benjamin 233 

Harrison, William Henry... 186 

Henry, Patrick 140 

Highlander 133 

House, Interior of 98 

House, Old Colonial 98 

House, Old Dutch, in New 

York 51 

Howe, Elias 229 

Hudson, Henry 48 

Indian 104 

Indians Fighting 230 

Jackson, Andrew 197 

Jackson's Monument 198 

Jefferson, Thomas 181 

Jesuit Priest 118 

Johnson, Andrew 222 

Jones, Paul 161 

Lafayette 165 

La Salle 44 

Latch-string 186 

Lawrence, James 195 

I.ee, Gen. Robert E 221 



PAGE. 

Liberty Bell 153 

Lincoln, Abraham 215 

Locke, John 66 

Log Meeting-House 95 

Log Schoolhouse 97 

Long-house of the Iroquois 115 
Louis XIV 45 

Madison, James 190 

Map of Colonial Times 92 

Map of Colonies 143 

Map of Indian Tribes 106 

Map of Trans-Mississippi 

Territory 165 

Marquette, Father Jacques. 117 

Mayflower, The 70 

Merchant, A London 69 

Merchant's Wife, A 69 

Mink 119 

Moccasins 112 

Monroe, James 199 

Montcalm, Marquis de 130 

Monticello 188 

Morse, S. F. B 205 

Mount Hope 101 

Mount Vernon 164 

New York in 1664 53 

Nina, The 22 

Norse Ship 10 

Oglethorpe, James 88 

Palisaded House 77 

Palisaded Town 120 

Pappoose Ill 

Penn, William 85 

Perry, Oliver H 196 

Philip, King 102 

Pinta, The 20 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGi;. 

Pioneer Life 202 

Pitt, William 132 

Pocahontas 62 

Polk, James K 208 

Potato Plant 58 

Prairie Schooner 209 

Prophet, The 189 

Puritan Man, A 73 

Puritan Woman, A 74 

Quakers 80 

Quebec, View of. 134 

Queen Elizabeth 56 

Queen Isabella 18 

Railroad, First 204 

Raleigh, Sir Walter 56 

Randolph, John 180 

Santa Maria 19 

Schenectad}-, Attack on.... 120 

Slaves at Work 212 

Smith, Capt. John 60 

Smithsonian Institution 211 

Soldier, A British 146 

Soldier of King James, A... 59 
Spinning Wheel for Flax... 94 
Spinning Wheel for Wool. . 94 



PAGE. 

Stamp 139 

State House, 1775 153 

Statue of Libert}', Bar- 

tholdi's 238 

Stuyvesant, Peter 52 

Surveying, Washington, at 

16 125 

Tobacco Plant 57 

Totems, Indian 110 

Wagons, Immigrant 201 

Wampum Belt, A 112 

War Dance, The 113 

Washington, Col. George.. 128 
Washington, Gen. George.. 150 

Wayne, Gen. Anthony 175 

Webster, Daniel 193 

West Point 162 

Whitney, EH 213 

Wigwam 110 

Winthrop, Gov. John 74 

Williams, Roger 78 

Wolfe, Gen. James 135 

Wolfe-Montcalm M o n u - 

ment 135 

World's Columbian Ex- 
position 236 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER I. 



EARLY DISCOVERERS. 

A few hundred years ago the oldest and wisest 
men of Europe did not know as much about the 
surface of the earth as a boy in the third grade 
at school knows now. 

The wisest of them thought that there was no 
land where America is. They thought that the 
world was flat and that the Atlantic Ocean 
stretched out to the end of the world. What 
there was at the end they did not know; but 
they fancied that horrible monsters might be 
there, and they were quite sure it was night there 
all the time, because it seemed so far from the 
sun. 

In the old books of Iceland a story is told of a 
brave Norseman whose name was Bjarni. This 
Bjarni once started on a voyage to visit his 
friend, Eric the Red, who lived in Greenland. 
Soon after Bjarni and his sailors set sail, a storm 
arose and drove their ship to the west for many 



10 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




NORSE SHIP. 



days. Then, after one day of calm, they came 
to a long, level shore. Bjarni knew this could 
not be Greenland; for Eric 
had told him of high moun- 
tains covered with ice. So 
they sailed north, and kept 
seeing level land for many 
days. Then they came to 
a country where there were 
mountains of snow. This 
must have been an island; 
for, in trying to find their friend, they sailed 
quite around it. 

People now think that it was the island of New- 
foundland. 

At last they found Eric in Greenland, and 
everybody listened eagerly to the stories which 
they told about the new lands they had seen far- 
ther south. 

Little Leif, the son of Eric, as he sat blinking 
at the great logs blazing in the fireplace, listened 
to it all. He said that when he grew to be a 
great big sea king, he would visit the new lands 
himself, and that perhaps he would find bigger 
bears there than any that were in Greenland. 

Surely enough, Leif Ericson became a bold 
sea rover, and one day he sailed away with some 



LEIF THE LUCKY. II 

friends on a voyage of discovery. He sailed 
past Newfoundland to the southwest and came 
through a bay, between an island and the main- 
land, into a river. It is thought that this island 
was Nantucket. 

On the banks of the river there were so many 
vines and grapes that Leif called the country 
Vinland. Leif and his friends were delighted 
with the warm, sunny land; they stayed several 
months, and when they returned to Greenland 
their stout ship was almost loaded down with 
fruit and timber. They wanted the timber for 
building ships. There were no such fine, straight 
trees in all Greenland as those from Vinland. 
When Leif sailed into port with his cargo, he 
was honored by the people. He was called Leif 
the Lucky; and when his father died, he became 
ruler in Greenland. 

After that, many of the Norsemen went to 
Vinland for grapes and timber, but they made 
no permanent settlement there. Sometimes, in 
the sea ports of other countries, they would talk 
about the lands they had seen in the west, but not 
many believed what they said. 

Even to-day, some historians do not believe 
that the Norsemen really visited America; but 
the schoolboys of Iceland and Greenland say 



13 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY, 



that America was discovered by Leif the Lucky 
in the year looi. 

A great many years after this, in the beautiful 
city of Genoa, there Hved an Italian boy who 







GENOA. 



was very fond of the sea. He often stood on 
the wharves watching the ships sail in and out of 
the harbor. When only a little child, he said he 
wanted to be a sailor, and so when he was ten 
years old his father sent him to a school in Pa- 
via to study navigation. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 



13 



At the age of fourteen this boy, Christopher 
Columbus, went to sea on his uncle's ship. He 
was in several battles against the pirates in the 
Mediterranean, and was always very brave. 
Once his ship was burned, and he swam six miles 
to shore clinging to a piece of broken mast. 

In the sea ports of Europe and Africa, Colum- 
bus heard some of the strange stories which the 
Norsemen had told about lands to the west, and 
many things made him believe they were true. 
His own brother-in-law had seen a piece of carved 
wood which had been washed ashore from the 
west. There was also a tradition of two drowned 
men, dressed in strange-looking clothes, who 
had been picked up off the coast of the Azores. 

Then the great English traveler, Sir John 
Mandeville, had written a book more than a hun- 
dred years before this time, in which he said that 
he believed the world was round, and that it 
was possible for a man to sail round the world 
and reach, at last, the place of starting. 

Now the teachers of navigation in Pavia 
thought this theory of Sir John was but the bab- 
bling of an old man. They said no ship could 
sail upside down, and if the world were round 
that was what a ship would have to do if it 
should sail beyond the horizon. 



14 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

But Columbus, who is thought to have read the 
book of Sir John Mandeville, began to beHeve 
that the world was round and that the lands to 
the west were China and India. 

You can almost hear the sailors laughing at 
this young upstart as they lay sunning them- 
selves on the shore and listening to his talk. 
They tapped on their foreheads and winked at 
one another, as if they thought his mind was not 
quite sound. But Columbus gave no heed to 
them and laid many plans to find a way to make 
a voyage to the far west. 

In those days the journey from Europe to India 
and China was made mostly by land on camels 
across the deserts of Asia. Every 
trip took a long time and cost a 
great deal of money. Columbus 
thought that if the world were 
round he might reach these coun- 
tries quicker and safer by sea; for 
CHRISTOPHER he supposed the world to be much 
COLUMBUS. smaller than it really is, and did 
not dream that the great continent of America 
lay between Europe and Asia. 

He tried in vain to get the republic of Genoa 
to help him fit out vessels for the voyage. Then 
he went to Venice, whose rich merchants sent 




KING JOHN OF PORTUGAL. I5 

every year to India for silks and jewels and 
spices; but the rulers of that little republic 
would not risk any money upon such a foolish 
undertaking. 

Then Columbus went to the kingdom of Portu- 
gal for aid. But, although King John, who was 
a great traveler himself, thought well of the 
project, he said that Columbus asked too much 
for his services. Columbus wanted a tenth of 
all the gold, silver, and jewels he should find. He 
also asked to be made governor of the lands he 
might discover. 

King John sent out secretly the best Portu- 
guese pilot to follow the course indicated by 
Columbus. But this pilot lacked the zeal and 
faith of the man from Genoa. His ship became 
entangled in the seaweed beyond the Azores, 
and the ignorant sailors said there were demons 
holding the ship back; a hurricane drove the ship 
hither and thither, and they said that was the 
work of demons, too. After the pilot had sailed 
several days without finding land, he returned to 
Portugal; and he declared that there were no 
lands to the west. 

When Columbus found out that the king had 
deceived him, he quit Portugal and went to 
Spain. 



CHAPTER II. 

COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA. 

Ferdinand and Isabella, king and queen of 
Spain, were having trouble at this time with the 
Moors. The Moors were Arabs, who had con- 
quered a part of Spain hundreds of years be- 
fore, and now occupied the province of Granada, 
where they had built a city and many beautiful 
palaces. Some of these Moors were great scholars 
and had large libraries; but none of them believed 
in the Christian religion, and they were not will- 
ing to acknowledge Ferdinand and Isabella as 
their king and queen. 

At the time Columbus came to the Spanish 
court, a bitter war was raging against Boabdil, 
king of Granada. 

When Columbus explained his plans for a voy- 
age to the west, the king did not seem to be 
interested; but the queen talked much with 
him and thought there might be some truth 
in what he said. She told him that Spain could 
not give him aid until the Moors were con- 
quered. So Columbus, the Italian, joined the 
Spaniards in the Moorish war and fought bravely. 

16 



THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA. 



17 



On the second of January, 1492, Columbus saw 
the triumphal procession of Ferdinand pass 




THE ALHAMBRA. 



through the streets of Granada in front of the 
palace called the Alhambra. The Moors had 
been conquered at last. 

Pages in gold-embroidered garments came 
first, then, on gayly harnessed steeds with nod- 
ding plumes and flying banners, came the minis- 
ters of state, clad in such gorgeous attire that 
they themselves seemed like an army of kings. 
Then came King Ferdinand. His royal mantle 
of crimson lined with ermine almost concealed 
his horse. The crown of gold upon his head 
glittered with jewels, and the precious stones on 
his embroidered vest shone like the sun. On 




iS THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

their prancing steeds the nobles followed, all in 

silver armor. 

Then fair Queen Isabella and her dames and 

pages came. It was a glorious sight. Loud 
sounded the trumpets. But the 
music was hushed as the con- 
quered Boabdil rode toward the 
king. 

He was robed in black. His 
eyes were downcast as he reined 

QUEEN ISABEI.I.A. J^J^ J^^j.^^ ^y ^|^g gJJ^ q£ p^j-JJ. 

nand. A flush of shame spread over his haughty 
face as, bowing low, he gave up his signet rings 
and the keys of his beloved city. He laid aside 
his shield and lance and scimetar, in token of 
submission. Then bowing low again, he sadly 
turned to the road which led clown to the sea. 

Trumpets and clarions then mingled with the 
voices of thousands who knelt on the pavements 
below the towers of the Alhambra. Colum- 
bus knelt among the rest. He now longed more 
than ever to become great. 

And at last, three small vessels, the Santa 
Maria, the Pinta and the Nina sailed from the 
little town of Palos. They carried about a 
hundred men, and food enough to last a 
year. Columbus was the captain of the Santa 



COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA. 



^9 



Maria; a Spanish pilot whose name was Pinzon, 
went with the Pinta, and his brother with the 
Nina. 

In a month they reached the Canary Islands 
— farther than any of them had ever been be- 
fore. After they had gone beyond these, the 

sailors began to 
get frightened. 

The days went 
by. On and on 
sailed the ships, 
and still no land 
came in sight. 

Columbus him- 
self grew more 
and more anx- 
ious. He slept 
not; he ate not; 
he spent hours in prayer. The sailors began to 
think him a madman. 

They plotted to throw him overboard and re- 
turn home. But one morning the sailors on the 
Nina sighted a branch with red berries floating 
on the water; those on the Pinta soon picked up a 
curiously carved log. Then some pelicans, which 
are birds with long necks and white plumage, 
something like swans but heavier, sailed about 




THE SANTA MARIA. 



20 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY 




THE PINTA. 



the masts. Flocks of land-birds began to circle 
about the ships. 

Columbus knew that land must be near. That 

night he saw lights 
•^'f;f>^ moving in the dis- 

tance. At early 
dawn the P i n t a , 
which was ahead, 
shot off a gun as a 
signal that land was 
seen. Soon, a long 
coastline came in 
sight where people 
were running up and down, in great excitement. 
The voyage of seventy- five days was at an end. 
The sailors joyously hauled down the sails and 
made ready to cast out the anchors. 

When land was reached, Columbus stepped on 
shore carrying the red and gold banner of 
Spain, and each of his captains bore a green flag 
inscribed with a cross. The soldiers and sailors 
came next in their best gala attire, and all knelt 
down together and kissed the land. Columbus 
rose with drawn sword and took possession of the 
country in the name of Spain. He called the land 
SanSalvador, because the lives of himself and his 
men had been saved from the dangers of the sea. 



THE NATIVES. 21 

It was on the twelfth of October, 1492, that 
Columbus and his companions thus discovered 
the New World. 

At first, the natives kept a long distance from 
them. But after their fright was over, they were 
gentle and kind. They brought food and fresh 
water from the brooks to refresh the strangers. 
The sun shone so brightly on the shields and hel- 
mets and swords that they thought these men 
with white skins must be gods come down from 
the sun. 

They themselves were copper-colored and 
almost naked. They were very ignorant. They 
thought that the brass rings and ornaments of 
the Spaniards were prettier than their gold ones, 
and they wanted to trade. You maybe sure that 
the sailors were glad to do this. 

The natives traded great balls of cotton thread 
which their women had spun and which some- 
times weighed twenty-five pounds each, for a 
little painted tambourine, or a broken china cup 
costing a few cents. They knew so little about 
swords that they picked them up by the sharp 
blades and cut their hands badly. 

On most of the natives Columbus saw gold. 
When he asked them where they got it, they 
pointed toward the south. 



22 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Columbus took some of them with him to 
search for this land of gold. He sailed south 
till he came to a great island called Cuba. Here 
the ferns and palms and flowers and birds were 
so beautiful that he was more sure than ever that 
he had found India. So he called the natives 
Indians. 

Once, when some naked Indian boys swam out 
to the ship, the sailors caught one of them. 
They dressed him up in a cap and bells and 
short bright-colored cape and long stockings, and 
made him swim back to his astonished friends 
on shore; and the ship went sailing off with 
everbocly laughing. 

When Columbus reached Hayti, he called that 

island Hispaniola. 
Here the Santa 
Maria struck on a 
reef and had to be 
abandoned. 

A fort was built 

out of the wreck, 

and thirty-nine of 

the men were left 

THE NINA. in charge. Then 

on the sixteenth of January, 1493, Columbus set 

sail in the Niiia for Spain, taking with him some 




COLUMBUS RETURNS TO SPAIN. 23 

native Indians to be baptized. Pinzon had de- 
serted him. He was hurrying home in the ship 
Pinta, to win the laurels of the discovery for 
himself. 

Columbus had a stormy voyage on the return 
home. Once it was thought that the ship would go 
down. So he wrote an account of his discoveries, 
and sealing it up in a cask, threw it overboard. 
But the sea grew calm again and on the fifteenth 
of March the Nina dropped anchor off Palos. 

The King and Queen were at Barcelona at that 
time. You can fancy how astonished everybody 
looked when the tall, dark-skinned Indians 
marched in. They were half-naked. Their 
bodies were painted and their heads adorned 
with feathers. Some carried baskets of seed- 
pearls, and curious ornaments of gold, some bore 
the skins of strange animals, and others un- 
known plants and beautiful birds of brilliant 
plumage. 

The king and queen rose from their thrones to 
receive Columbus, which was a great honor. 

Columbus really believed he had found India. 
He told the monarchs that there were rivers with 
sands of gold in these wonderful West Indies, 
and that much gold was in the earth, to be had 
for the digging. 



24 THE STOKY OF Ol'K COUNTRY, 

So Ferdinand was anxious to fit out vessels for 
another voyage; and on the twenty-fifth of Sep- 
tember, 1493, a fleet of seventeen ships, with 
fifteen hundred men on board, weighed anchor 
and steered westward 

In about two months Columbus came in sight of 
Hispaniola. Sailing to the fort which he had built 
there, he found it burned and the little colony 
gone. Farther east on the island, he built another 
fort, where he left a colony under command of 
his brother Diego. Putting to sea again, he dis- 
covered the islands of Jamaica and Porto Rico, 

When he returned to Hispaniola, his colony 
was in a sad plight. The greedy Spaniards had 
not found gold. They were all discontented. 
Many were sick, for the climate was unhealthful. 
The Indians had been cruelly treated by the 
brutal soldiers and would not furnish food. 

The colonists blamed Columbus for all their 
troubles and sent complaints against him to the 
king. So the great admiral set sail for Spain to 
defend himself, and was again well received by 
the king and queen. 

In 149S, Columbus set sail with six ships on a 
third voyage to the New \\ orld. This time he 
steered farther to the south, still believing he 
would come to India. 



COLUMBUS'S LAST VOYAGE. 25 

Skirting along the coast of South America, he 
saw the Orinoco river rushing clown with its 
yellow floods to the sea, and then he knew he had 
found a continent; but he thought it was Asia. 

When he reached Hispaniola, Columbus found 
the Spaniards quarreling with one another and 
angry with him. He was put in chains and sent 
back to Spain a prisoner. 

Enemies talked ugly about him on the streets 
of Granada. In the courtyard of the Alhambra, 
when they met his two little sons, who were 
pages to Queen Isabella, they would shout and 
jeer at them about their father. 

Although the king took off his chains, he did 
not treat Columbus very well. He, too, was 
angry because the gold had not been found. But 
the selfish Ferdinand knew that Columbus was 
the best sailor in Spain, and so he told him he must 
sail again to the west and try once more to find 
a passage to the rich provinces of India. 

When at last his ships again reached Hispani- 
ola, the colony would not let Columbus land. 
With a sad heart he sailed to the west to obey 
the king. He did not find a passage to India. 
His ships were old and worm-eaten. The food 
gave out, storms drove the vessels ashore, and 
Columbus and his men barely escaped alive. He 



26 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




TOMB OK COLUMBUS. 



was finally taken back to Spain in a ship that was 
sent to his aid by the governor of Hispaniola. 
His kind friend Isabella was dead. The king 
would not reward him for his 
faithful services. Seventy years 
old and neglected, Columbus 
died among strangers. 

After many years, the people 
of Spain learned what a wonder- 
ful land Columbus had discov- 
ered. They took up his body, 
carried it across the ocean, and 
buried it with pomp in San Domingo, in the 
Island of Hayti, which he had colonized. When 
Hayti was ceded to France, his 
remains were removed to the 
Cathedral in Havana, Cuba. 

Isabella's grandson, Charles 
v., bestowed upon the grand- 
son of Columbus the title of 
Duke of Veragua and Marquis 
of Jamaica. 

The United States, in 1892, in- 
vited the present Duke of Ver- 
agua to help celebrate the mem- columbus statue at 

° world's COLUMBIAN 

ory of Columbus at the World's exposition. 
Columbian Exposition. When the statue of 




HONORS FOR COLUMBUS. 



27 



Columbus was unveiled, the national air "Colum- 
bia" was played by hundreds of silver-throated 
instruments, and, for the hour, the whole world 
seemed to speak the one word — Columbus. Do 
you not think the great admiral himself would 
have felt repaid for all his heroic courage and 
self-sacrifice? 



EARLY VOYAGES 

TO 

NORTH AMERICA 




CHAPTER III. 



AMERICUS VESPUCIUS AND BALBOA. 

It soon became known all over Europe that 
there really was land across the sea, and another 
Italian, Americus Vespucius, who lived in Spain, 
planned a voyage of discovery. 

In 1499, Americus visited the coast of Venezuela 
and saw many curious things there. The people 
lived in villages built out in the 
water on piles, with little bridges 
which they could draw up so 
that no one could get into their 
houses. Americus saw them 
roasting alligators for food. He 
said that they sometimes killed 
and ate captives taken in war; 
but the people in Spain could not believe that 
story. It seemed too horrible to be true. 

Americus brought back two hundred Indians 
to Spain and sold them as slaves; he thought 
that was right because he had captured them in 
battle. 

He wrote letters to a friend about his voyage, 
but did not once mention the name of Columbus. 

28 




AMERICUS VESPUCIUS. 



DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 29 

The letters were published and soon people 
began to talk about the country of Americus, 
although, as we have seen, Americus was not 
the one who discovered it. And that is the way 
in which the great western continent came to be 
called America. 

About this time there was a Spaniard named 
Balboa, who lived in Hispaniola. He was brave 
but cruel, and had many enemies. 

He owed a great deal of money wliich he did 
not wish to pay back. So one day, to escape 
his creditors, he hid behind some casks on a 
ship just as it was leaving port. When the 
captain found Balboa behind the casks he 
threatened to throw him overboard. But soon 
a storm tossed the ship about the sea until it 
was driven to the coast of Darien, near where 
there was already a small Spanish settlement. 
Here the Indians were not very friendly to 
the Spaniards, and tried to induce them to leave 
the country. 

One day, the son of an Indian chief told them 
that a few days' journey to the west would bring 
them to a great sea, and that beyond the sea was 
a land so rich that the people ate off plates of 
silver and drank from goblets of gold. Balboa 
determined to find this land. So, with a part}^ of 



30 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Spaniards, he marched toward the west, fighting 
the hostile Indians and often going without food 
whole days at a time, until they came across the 
Isthmus of Darien, to a high mountain beyond 
which, the guide said, lay the sea. 

From the top of the mountain in 1513, they 
saw a vast blue sea which stretched out so far 
that only the water and the sky could be seen. 
Great was the joy over this wonderful discovery. 
The little band of men hastened down the 
mountain side; and as they went they cut the 
name of Ferdinand on the bark of the trees. 

When, at last, Balboa reached the shore, he 
waded out into the water and waved his sword 
and called the new ocean the South Sea, because 
all that part of it which was in sight lay to the 
south of the land; and he took possession of the 
sea and all the land along its coast in the name 
of Ferdinand, King of Spain. A few years after 
that, a brave navigator whose name was Magel- 
lan, sailed across the South Sea, westward from 
South America, and thus at last found the long- 
sought passage to India; and, because the waters 
were so calm, he gave to the great sea the name 
which it still bears, the Pacific Ocean. 



CHAPTER IV. 

SPANISH SETTLEMENTS. 

Of all the sailors who went across the sea to 
the new world, the Spaniards were the most 
pleased with their discoveries, because they 
happened to go where the climate was mild, 
where the flowers were blooming and the birds 
were singing. 

The land itself seemed so wonderful that they 
could not help believing the wonderful stories 
the natives told. One of the stories was about a 
magic fountain that would give eternal youth to 
any one who bathed in its waters. 

Now, among the friends of Columbus was a 
man whose name was Ponce de 
Leon. He was a brave knight, 
who had been made governor of 
Porto Rico. He was very rich, 
but, as he was getting old, he was 
willing to spend all his wealth 
if he might only find the fabled 
fountain and grow young again. 

So he fitted out some ships and sailed from 
Porto Rico among the islands that dot the sea to 
the west and north. 




PONCE DE LEON. 



32 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

On Easter Sunday, in 1513, he landed on a 
coast so full of flowers that he called the land 
Florida. Then for ^veeks he searched all through 
this land of flowers; but although he bathed in 
many streams, he was just as wrinkled as before. 
At last, Ponce de Leon sailed awa}-. Although 
he kept thinking about the fountain of 3-outh, 
he kept getting older and older every day. 

Five years later he returned to Florida. The 
king had made him governor of the countr}' and 
wanted him to colonize it. But he searched 
no more for the magic fountain; for almost 
as soon as he landed, the Indians fell upon his 
men and killed several in a fierce battle. He 
himself was wounded and sailed back home to 
die. 

While the rich Ponce de Leon had been seek- 
ing youth in Florida another Spaniard, Cortez, 
was seeking gold in Mexico, but 
as that country is not a part of 
the United States, we shall not 
- ^>.™ . take time to relate the story of 
' (-'r-^W ' its discovery. 
' '' In the city of Mexico, Cortez 

HERNANDO CORTEZ. found bcautlful palaces and tem- 
ples, and vast stores of wealth in the treasure- 
houses of Montezuma, the king. 




SEARCH FOR GOLD. 33 

Cortez conquered the country and made it a 
Spanish province. He sent bushels of pearls and 
millions of dollars in gold and silver to Spain. 
This caused the new king, Charles V., to be more 
anxious than ever to possess the whole of the 
new world and he sent over many colonists to 
make settlements. 

Some of the Spaniards were very wicked and 
cruel to the Indians. Sometimes they cut off 
their noses and put out their eyes because the 
Indians would not show them where to find gold; 
for they believed that the Indians knew just 
where all the gold mines were. 

In 1526 the king of Spain appointed a man 
called De Narvaez to be governor of Florida. 
He was a bold adventurer, and wanted gold 
more than anything else in the world. He 
treated the Indians so cruelly that they at last 
revenged themselves by shoot- 
ing down his men from the for- 
ests and swamps, until only four 
were left of the three hundred 
who had started out. 

King Charles now planned a 
new expedition which should be hernando de soto. 
greater than any other. Hernando de Soto, the 
flower of the Spanish youth, was appointed gov- 




34 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

ernor of Florida and Cuba. He had already 
done some famous things, fighting the Indians in 
South America. He had just been married to 
the daughter of Don Pedro cle Avila, the proud- 
est of all the nobles of Spain. 

Many young courtiers (locked about the stand- 
ard of De Soto and began to prepare for the 
voyage. It was a gay company, all clad in bright 
armor, with scarfs flying and swords dangling at 
their sides. 

In the ships there were great iron chests in 
which to bring back the treasure they expected to 
find. They also carried many chains for the In- 
dian slaves they wanted to capture, and they had 
a number of trained bloodhounds to chase 
the slaves that should run away. Although 
they took over cards and many games for the 
young nobles to amuse themselves with, they also 
took twelve priests. These were to convert the 
natives who were called heathen, because they 
had never heard of the Christian religion. 

At last ten fine ships were fitted out and six 
hundred young nobles sailed proudly from the 
harbor of San Lucar, to seek their fortunes in 
the strange new world. 

Favorable winds bore them to Havana, where 
De Soto left his beautiful wife to rule the island 



HERNANDO DE SOTO. 



35 



of Cuba while he should be in Florida seekin*^ for 
gold. 

In May, 1539, the ships cast anchor in Tampa 
Bay, Florida, and De Soto landed there. He 
soon heard of an Indian town six miles away 
and hastened to visit it. 

When he reached the town, the Indians had 
fled and hidden themselves in the forest; but 
there were wooden houses there, and everything 
was neat and clean. 

The walls were hung with embroidered curtains 
made from buckskin; and on the floors were 
buckskins for rugs. Some dresses for women 
were there, and shawls woven from the bark of 
mulberry trees andT trimmed with shells or em- 
broidered with gold and bright-colored threads. 

De Soto began to think he had, indeed, found 
a country rich in gold. So he and his men went 
through gloomy swamps, deeper and deeper into 
the forests. Some of them grew frightened; but 
they were too proud to say so and went on and 
on, searching for treasure they never found. 

All winter they stayed near the Flint river in the 
Appalachian mountains. They made many explo- 
rations and saw many strange beasts and birds. 

The next summer they wandered about, always 
told by the Indians that gold was farther to the 



36 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

west. They passed through the country now 
known as Georgia and Alabama, and came at 
last to the Indian village of Mobile. There 
the Indians opposed their progress, and in a 
terrible battle the town was burned and two 
thousand Indians were killed. Eighteen of De 
Soto's men were killed and one hundred and 
fifty wounded; eighty of the horses were killed 
and all of their baggage was lost. 

Through forests and across streams they 
marched, fighting their way toward the west, 
until, after many months, they found, instead of 
gold, the great Mississippi river. 

De Soto erected a large wooden cross on the 
bluffs by the shore, and claimed the country in 
the name of Spain. 

It would take a long time to follow the march 
of De Soto as he wandered still farther west, 
always searching for treasure and never find- 
ing it. 

At length, discouraged and sick, he came back 
to the Mississippi. He dreamed no more of con- 
quest. He thought only of the beautiful wife in 
far-away Cuba, whom he had not seen for three 
long years. He thought of the castle in Spain 
where he had been so proud and happy in the 
days now gone forever. When De Soto died, 



ST, AUGUSTINE FOUNDED. y] 

the priests chanted a solemn hymn and his body 
was lowered, by torch-light, into the waters of 
the river he had found. 

Only three hundred and eleven of the six 
hundred cavaliers were alive. Ragged and 
half-starved, they made boats, and finally after 
great suffering, a very few of them reached a 
little Spanish settlement on the east coast of 
Mexico. 

More than twenty years later, one more 
attempt was made to settle Florida. 

On St. Augustine's day, the twenty-eighth of 
August, 1565, a large fleet, bearing twenty-five 
hundred men and wo- 
men, came in sight of St. ~ rX 
John's river. At the „^ \X~, 
mouth of that river, they ^^^'-^^ ' 
laid out the town of St. ^^^^-^-^^ 
Augustine, the oldest set- ^^^ 
tlement in the United 

C^^ GATEWAY AT ST. AUGUSTINE. 

A strong fort was begun, a chapel was built, 
homes were erected, and soon there was a little 
patch of Spain on what was afterwards to be a 
part of the United States. And in it there were 
Jesuit priests and lords and ladies, with many 
Indian slaves to do their bidding. 




CHAPTER V. 

ENGLISH AND FRENCH VOYAGES. 

In the seaport town of Bristol, England, lived 
an old Venetian sailor, named John Cabot, who 
had been all over the known world. 

When he heard about the discoveries of Co- 
lumbus he felt sure that he could find a western 
passage to India. So, about the year 1497, he 
fitted out a ship, and got permission of King 
Henry VII. to take possession, in the name of 
England, of any land not claimed by other coun- 
tries. 

After a long voyage north of the course taken 
by Columbus, he reached the barren coast of 
Labrador. It was cold and dreary there. The 
hungry white bears and wide stretches of snow 
and ice were not very inviting. He set up the flag 
of England on the coast and sailed back home. 
Cabot was sure he had found the east end of 
Asia; the people thought so, too, and honored 
him greatly; the king called him the " Great 
Admiral" and gave him a high place at court. 

The following year the admiral's son, Sebas- 
tian Cabot, sailed from Bristol to find a north- 

38 



THE DISCOVERIES OF THE CABOTS. 



39 




west passage to India. The icebergs of Green- 
land came in sight and he changed the course of 
his ship to the south. He passed 
through great schools of cod fish, 
such as he had never seen before; 
and after touching on the coast ^^ 
of Labrador where his father had 
been, Sebastian sailed still farther 

^1 TT 1 J ^1 ^1. SEBASTIAN CABOT. 

south. He explored the coastline 
of America as far as Maryland, and took posses- 
sion of all that country in the name of England. 

As the Cabots did not find the rich country of 
India, the English lost interest in the new world, 
and it was many years before any settlements 
were made by them. 

Some fishermen of Brittany and Normandy 
heard of the great fishing grounds which the 
Cabots had seen. They steered their frail barks 
to the shoals of Newfoundland, filled them with 
fish, and hurried back to tell of their good fortune. 

Soon very many French fishermen sailed boldly 
out to the banks of Newfoundland, dried their 
fish upon the rocks and then returned to sell 
them in the seaports of Europe. 

Fishing smacks were the only vessels that 
sailed from France to America until Francis I. 
came to the throne. This king declared that he 



40 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

would explore the new world as his neighbors in 
Spain and England had done. 

So in 1524, Francis sent out an Italian sailor, 
Verrazano, to find a short passage to Asia. 

After a stormy voyage, Verrazano reached the 
coast of North Carolina. Then he sailed north 

to the harbor of New 

' ir^^sk York. Then he touched 

*^^^^^^r>^ at Rhode Island, where 

:;^^^^'"r'^^^ "I^^*^^^"^^^ ^^ found many grapes, 

iust as Leif the Lucky 



- isj-v. -;=i^': had done, five hundred 

COD FISHING. years before. He next 

traced the long and broken line of the New Eng- 
land coast, passed to the east of Nova Scotia, 
and finally sailed on to Newfoundland. 

When \^errazano reached home he wrote a 
book about his voyage. He said he had sailed 
close to the shore and that he had seen fires 
blazing all along the coast, which showed that 
the country was inhabited. 

He said the country was very beautiful, that 
gold and silver were there, and that he thought 
the natives looked much like the Chinese. 

King Francis I. was very much pleased with 
this report and gave the name New France to 
all the land that had been discovered. 




JACyUES CAKTIER. 41 

But wars broke out and the gay, ambitious 
monarch was kept so bu-sy that for ten years he 
thought very Httle about America. 

Then, in 1534, Jacques Cartier of Brittany made 
a voyage. He entered a bay in 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and while 
the Indians stood about, not know- ^^^ 
ing what he was doing, he raised fW\3ki 
up a tall wooden cross, bearing a /W^ 
shield with the arms of France, and *^ 
proclaimed the French king mas- 

^ " JACQUES CARTIER. 

ter of all that country. 

The Indians were not very friendly at first; but 
Cartier soon pleased them with gifts of beads 
and penknives and trinkets. He told them, as 
well as he could, about the Great Father in 
-France who had many warriors and would punish 
them if they did not let the cross stand where he 
had put it. 

When, a few weeks later, he sailed back to 
France, Cartier had so won the hearts of the na- 
tives that an Indian chief sent his two sons with 
him to see whether the white man had spoken 
truly. 

Fancy how those Indian boys felt when they 
saw the great armies of France, with their bright 
armor and waving plumes. How frightened they 



42 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

must have been at the wagons rattling over the 
streets of the great city of Paris. How high the 
houses must have looked! How carefully the 
boys must have stepped, the first time they 
climbed the steep stairways! 

The next year these Indian lads returned to 
America with Cartier. They were received with 
a great shout by their people, who had begun to 
fear they would never return. 

They described the many wonderful things 
they had seen; and when they told how kindly 
the Great Father on the throne of gold had 
treated them, the Indians became more friendly 
than ever to the French. 

They went with Cartier in boats up the St. 
Lawrence river till they came to an Indian vil- 
lage at the foot of a high hill, in the middle of 
an island. 

Climbing to the top of the hill, Cartier named 
the island and town Montreal. 

After spending the long cold winter in New 
France, Cartier returned home. The French 
were greatly discouraged. Neither silver nor gold 
had been found; and what was a new world good 
for that did not have silver and gold ? 



CHAPTER VI. 

FRENCH SETTLEMENTS. 

It was a long time before a permanent settle- 
ment was made by the French in America. But, 
at last, in 1605, a colony was established on the 
west coast of Nova Scotia. The name of Port 
Royal was given to the harbor. The whole 
country, including Nova Scotia and the land as 
far south as the St. Croix river, was called 
Acadia. 

In 1 60S, Samuel Champlain laid the founda- 
tions of Quebec, which soon became a flourishing 
trading post. Afterwards Montreal, which Car- 
tier had visited in 1535, became settled. The 
French Jesuit priests now came to New France 
in large numbers. They made friends with the 
Indians, and trading posts sprang up all along 
the St. Lawrence river and the lakes. 

It was bitter cold in winter; but the French 
learned to wear snowshoes and ride in sledges 
over the ice, and they were quite as healthy and 
happy as the Spaniards farther south in the Land 
of Plowers. 



44 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The missionaries heard of a great river in the 
west, flowing to the sea. And as they thought 
this might be the long-sought passage to India, 
they determined to explore it. In the year 
^^73> good Father Marquette and a merchant 
named Joliet went by way of the Fox river into 
the Wisconsin river. Here the guides left them; 
for they said that beyond was the Mississippi, 
the Father of Waters, and that far out in its 
yellow current dwelt a demon, who would swal- 
low both man and canoe. 

But Father Marquette was not afraid of de- 
mons, and he paddled on to the great river. 

He traveled many days down its broad current 
till his food gave out, and he was obliged to return. 
In the meantime. La Salle, a young Norman 
merchant, had discovered the Ohio river, and 
when he heard of the explo- 
rations of Marquette and Joliet, 
he determined to follow the Mis- 
sissippi to its mouth. La Salle 
had many ad ventures. He passed 
the spot where poor De Soto had 
once set up the cross of Spain; 
but, of course, he had never 
i,A SALLE. heard of that. When at last he 
came to the mouth of the river, La Salle set up 




HUNTERS AND TRAPPERS. 



45 




LOUIS XIV. 



the cross, with the arms of France, and took pos- 
session of the Mississippi and of all its tributa- 
ries, and of all the lands through 
which they flowed. 

He called the country Louis- 
iana, in honor of the king of 
France, Louis XIV. 

This whole country was a para- 
dise for hunters and trappers. 
There were droves of buffalo 
and herds of deer and towns of the velvet- 
coated beaver. The Indians were friendly and 
gladly exchanged 

their furs for the { ^fl\):-^ ^'' JP'^' ^ 

trinkets of the 

Frenchmen. 

In a few years. 
New Orleans, above 
the mouth of the 
river, was built. A 
line of trading posts 
sprang up along the Mississippi and the Illinois, 
and the Ohio and the Wabash. 

And so we find the French making a great deal 
of money with their fur trade. They lived at 
peace with the Indians; they married Indian 
girls after they had become good Catholics, and 







^ir< iH' 



II III MrH^Jjgyfy^ 









fe^^Sf^f 



BEAVER TOWN. 



46 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




A FRENCH GEN- 
TLEMAN. 



they had their half-Indian children baptized by 
the priest in the parish church. 

The wigwams grew into huts and the huts soon 
clustered together into villages. 
Neat gardens were laid out, and 
fruit trees were planted, and cattle 
were raised. Their farming was 
done in a rude way, to be sure. 
They stirred the ground with a 
wooden plowshare drawn by lazy 
oxen, whose only harness was 
strings of untanned hide, tied to 
the horns. But the rich soil gave forth great 
harvests of grain. 

Soon many boats, filled with flour, pork, tal- 
low, tobacco, hemp, and leather were floated 
down the Ohio and the Missis- 
sippi to New Orleans. There 
the goods were exchanged for 
sugar, metal goods, and cloth- 
ing. 

As there were no coopers to 
make barrels, the flour was packed 
in elk skins; as there were no 
churns, butter was made by shak- 
ing the cream in a bottle; and as there were 
no tubs, the soiled linen was pounded with 




^Sv% 



A eri-;nch 

TRAPPER. 



FRENCH COLONISTS. 



47 



Sticks in the nearest streams, as is done to-day 
in the country villages of France. 

The black-eyed French women wore bright 
red and blue petticoats with white handkerchiefs 
over their neat jackets, and little white caps on 
their smooth black hair. The men wore long 
leggings of doeskin, and a short 
cape. On their feet were beaded 
moccasins; in their ears were little 
round earrings; and their long hair 
was done up in a queue. 

When the day's work was over, 
a whole village gathered on the 
square, and to the music of the vio- 
lin joined in the dance; while the 
priest of the parish and the sedate Indian war- 
riors looked gravely on. In Montreal, Quebec, 
and New Orleans there was more bustle and life. 
Military garrisons were stationed in these larger 
towns. The wives of the officers came there 
to live, and brought with them many of the 
fashions from the gay city of Paris. 

The French colonists in New France and in 
Louisiana were prosperous and happy, and soon 
began to think that America was a delightful 
country to live in. 




CHAPTER VII. 

DUTCH SETTLEMENTS. 

In the city of Amsterdam, in Holland, was a 
rich company of merchants, called the Dutch 
East India Company. These merchants wanted 
very much to get to India by a cheaper and 
quicker way than across the desert. 

So they fitted out a ship for Henry Hudson, a 
British seaman, who had already been on two 
long voyages hunting for a north- 
west passage to India. 
- f 1 "^ N I^ 1609 Hudson sailed north to 

''Ifdr'^^j^J 1 Lapland. The ocean there was 
^* filled with icebergs, and so he 
, turned the prow of his good ship, 
Half Moon, toward America. He 

HENRY HUDSON. ., , ^, it-) 1 

sailed to Chesapeake Bay; then 
he sailed north, sounding all the bays and tr}'- 
ing in vain to find a river which would carry 
him west. 

It was in September that Hudson sailed up the 
river that now bears his name. Here the corn 
was ripening on the banks; yonder were groups 
of magnificent forest trees; still farther on, great 




DUTCH EXPLORATIONS. 49 

cliffs and towers of rock, like castles, mirrored 
themselves in the placid waters of the river. Hud- 
son thought he had never seen anything half so 
beautiful, and when he returned to Holland he 
told the merchants that a fine fur trade might 
be carried on in that region. 

Afterwards, this brave sea-captain explored 
the bay which now bears his name. It was so 
cold there that the sailors would not go any 
farther, and because Hudson would not turn 
back, they tied him with ropes and put him and 
his son and a few others into a boat and left 
them among the ice. What became of them 
nobody ever knew. 

Soon Dutch ships sailed up the Hudson river 
to engage in the fur trade. Fleets of boats 
carried powder and shot and hatchets and beads 
to a trading post on the river, called Fort Orange, 
where Albany now stands. 

A long line of canoes would often come down 
the Mohawk with packs of beaver skins. When 
they reached the mouth of that river, the Indians 
and their squaws would load the packs on their 
shoulders and walk down the narrow trail to the 
fort where the trading would begin. There were 
always some Indians there loitering around, gaz- 
ing with longing eyes at the beads and the little 



50 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

mirrors and the tinkling bells, which only their 
furs could buy. 

A fort and some huts were built on Manhattan 
Island, and soon many thrifty Dutch colonists 
settled there. In 1614, the name of New Am- 
sterdam was given to the place; and this was 
the beginning of New York City. 

Across the sound on Long Island and all 
around New Amsterdam lived many Indians be- 
cause of the oysters and clams to be found in the 
coves along the coast. Here too, on the long 
stretches of beach, were the beautiful blue and 
white shells which they made into wampum belts 
and often used for money. Fishes swarmed in the 
creeks, timid deer sprang through the forest, 
and all the marshes were full of wild fowls. It 
was just the spot for an Indian summer resort. 

At first the Dutch had a great deal of trouble 
with their Indian neighbors, and many a stout 
burgher was scalped or taken captive. After a 
time, they bought the land from the Indians and 
built forts along the shore, and then they began 
to feel quite safe from attack. They explored 
all the country between Cape Henlopen and 
Cape Cod, and called it New Netherlands. 

Their houses were wooden, with steep roofs and 
gables of black and yellow bricks, brought over 




THE DUTCH COLONY IN NEW YORK. 5 1 

from Holland. Everything was kept neat and 
clean ; for the Dutch women were great house- 
keepers, and they were good cooks, too. Tables 
and chairs were big and heavy. 
Sometimes three little fellows 
could sit all in a row, in one big 
chair. 

In the open fireplace, at night, 
the great logs crackled and blazed 
and showed the curious pictures ^^° dutch house 

1-11111 1 1 ^^^ ^'^'^^ YORK. 

on the tiles that had been brought 
from the old country. The floors were sprinkled 
every day with fresh white sand, and the little 
Dutch girls were taught to draw pretty figures 
on the sand with their stiff birch brooms. 

At night the children gathered around the fire 
and told fairy stories. Sometimes the pine knots 
threw long shadows into the room, when some 
one would tell an Indian story which made the 
bravest of them almost afraid to go to bed. 
On Christmas and Easter and New Year's they 
had great times with their sports, and were 
quite as happy as their cousins back in Holland. 

The Dutch burghers had neat little gardens 
just out of their towns. After their day's work 
was done they would sit on the stoops, and smoke, 
and talk to their neighbors. They were slow 



52 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




DUTCH COSTUMES. 



and did not make as much money as the French; 

but they did not spend so much either, and so they 

prospered. They built their own ships, and sent 

tobacco and furs and tar and timber to Europe. 
The women wore white muslin 
caps, and several short bright- 
colored petticoats, and red or 
blue or green stockings, and 
high-heeled shoes. The men 
had coats with wide skirts and 
big buttons. They wore small- 
clothes and long stockings 
and high-heeled shoes with 

buckles. Their hair was long and tied up in a 

queue. 

One of the governors of New Netherlands 

was Peter Stuyvesant. He was honest and 

brave, but so stubborn that he 

was called "Headstrong Peter"; 

some called him " Old Silver 

Leg," because he had a wooden 

leg with bands of silver on ito 

He was so headstrong that the ^^ 

Dutch settlers sometimes wished 

they had the freedom of the i-eter stuyvesant. 

English traders who were settling on either side 
of New Amsterdam. 




NEW AMSTERDAM BECOMES NEW YORK. 53 

There was soon much quarreling with these 
EngHsh; for the Dutch began to fear they would 
take their trade away. 

On account of the discoveries made by the 
Cabots, England claimed all of this country, and 
in 1664 some English vessels sailed up to New 
Amsterdam and demanded the surrender of the 
town. 

Peter Stuyvesant, after he had stamped around 
on his wooden leg and said many ugly things in 
a very loud voice, tore the letter, containing the 
terms of surrender, all to pieces ; but his people 
made him put it together again and accept the 
terms of the English. 

So New Netherlands became an English prov- 
ince, and the name New Amsterdam was 
changed to New York. But the Dutch language 
was spoken for a long time after that ; and even 
to-day, some of the oldest and richest families of 
New York are justly proud of their ancestors ; 
for they were a thrifty and honest people. 







NEW YORK IN 1064. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ENGLISH VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. 

On account of the discoveries made by the 
Cabots, the EngHsh claimed all the country lying 
north of South Carolina, except a part of Maine, 
which belonged to the French; but for many 
years there was no attempt at settlement. 

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth some gold 
quartz was taken to England, and great excite- 
ment arose over the promise of finding gold in 
America. 

The queen herself helped fit out several ves- 
sels. Some of the ships were crushed by icebergs 
when they sailed too far to the north. Some, 
heavy laden with yellow dirt, thought to be gold, 
were overtaken by storms and 
swallowed up by the sea. Others 
were captured or sunk by Spanish 
pirates. 

There were many roving sailors 
in those days, but the most famous 
was Sir Francis Drake. He sailed 
DRAKE. o^ 3-11 the seas and was the first 

Englishman to travel round the world. 

54 




DRAKE SAILS ROUND THE WORLD. 55 

In 1578, he plundered the treasure-ships of 
Spahi off the coast of Peru. Then he sailed north- 
ward along the coast of North America, hoping 
to find a short way to England. 

He found no passage; but the perfumed air 
and luscious fruit on the shore tempted him to 
land. He cast anchor off the coast of California, 
in a " fair and good bay"; and after he had ex- 
plored the region, he claimed the country in the 
name of Queen Elizabeth and called it New 
Albion. He so won the hearts of the natives 
that they made him king, and wept sorely when 
he went away. 

Drake knew that Spanish vessels lay in wait 
for him beyond Cape Horn, so he sailed to the 
west over the Pacific Ocean, stopped at several 
islands in the Indian Ocean, and returned at 
last to England by way of the Cape of Good 
Hope. 

When the great admiral arrived home with his 
ship full of treasure, the queen loaded him with 
honors. She made him a knight and partook of 
abanqueton board of his ship, "Pelican." After- 
wards she ordered the ship to be preserved as a 
monument of the glory that Sir Francis Drake 
had brought to England, by going around the 
world. 



56 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




After a hundred years, the " Pelican" fell to 

pieces; but from some of its timber a chair was 

made which may still be seen in the University 

of Oxford. 

The queen now desired more than ever to 

colonize her new posses- 
sions, and a great deal of 
money was spent in try- 
ing to settle the coun- 
try lying between New 
France and Florida. 

Sir Walter Raleigh was 
very zealous in this. He 
was a brave knight and 

was renowned for his heroic deeds in the wars 

with France. 

It is said that as Queen Elizabeth was once 

passing down the street in London, he threw 

his velvet cloak over a muddy 

crossing that she might step upon 

it. However that may be, Sir 

Walter became a great favorite 

with the queen. He was a noble 

gentleman, kind to rich and poor 

alike. 

He was very rich, and as the 

queen was pleased with his plans to settle 



OUEEN ELIZABETH 




SIR WALTER 
RALEIGH. 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 



57 







America, he sent out two vessels at his own 
expense. The ships cast anchor off the coast of 
CaroHna in 1584 and after a few weeks returned 
to England heavily laden with 
furs and fine woods. 

Elizabeth was delighted with 
the account of the voyage, and 
the country was named Vir- 
ginia after the virgin queen, as 
she was called. 

Sir Walter Raleigh sent a 
shipload of people to Virginia 
to settle on Roanoke Island. 
The men spent their time in 
hunting gold mines instead of 
planting corn, and were nearly starving when 
Sir Francis Drake chanced to pass that way with 
his ships. He took them back with him to 
England. 

Two years afterward, Raleigh sent out an- 
other company, with John White as governor. 
They settled on Roanoke Island and built a stout 
fort and some houses, and there, one day, a little 
girl-baby was born, the granddaughter of Gover- 
nor White. She was the first English child born 
in America, and she was named Virginia Dare. 
White soon had to go back to England for pro- 



TOBACCO Pi:<ANT. 




58 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

visions. Wars with Spain kept him away three 
years, and when he again visited Roanoke Island 
the Httle colony was gone. 
No one ever knew what be- 
came of the first little white 
,f 7 3 baby born in Virginia. 

So, you see, the colonies of 
Raleigh did not prosper; but 
he, at least, did great service 
to the English people by 
bringing the potato from America. The place 
is still pointed out in Ireland where the first 
potato was planted by him. He also made 
tobacco popular in England, where no smoking 
had ever been seen. 

But he heard nothing about the wonderful 
cotton-plant which was one day to 
bring so much wealth to all the 
region about Roanoke. 

The cotton-plant did not grow 
in this country at that time. It 
was introduced many years later ^ 
from the Bahama Islands, and at %'U\ 
first, it was cultivated in flower ' i»' 

gardens as an experiment. People cotton-pi.ant. 
did not think that good cotton could develop so 
far north as this. 




CHAPTER IX. 

SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 

Wars at home turned the attention of England 
away from her colonies; and for many years 
after the failure at Roanoke, there were no 
settlements made in America- 

In 1606 King James divided Virginia into two 
parts; he gave the north half to some merchants 
in Plymouth and the south half 
to some merchants in London, 
if they would settle the country. 

Both companies sent over ships 
to Virginia that same year; but 
the Plymouth company did not 
succeed in making a settlement. 
The London or Virginia com- 
pany was more fortunate. Three 
ships set sail in December under 
command of Captain Newport. They had a 
long, stormy voyage and winds drove them at 
last to a large river, which they called the James 
river in honor of the king. In the month of May, 
1607, they landed on a level point of land, about 
fifty miles from the mouth of the river; and there 




A SOLDIER OF 
KING JAMES. 



6o THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

they began to lay the foundations of Jamestown, 
the oldest English settlement in America. 

They were a queer company of men. Of the 
hundred and five, only twelve were common 
laborers. Some called themselves " gentlemen" 
and would not work, some were criminals, wdio 
had been pardoned but still kept their vagabond 
habits. The great man among them was Cap- 
tain John Smith, He had gone 
to sea when a boy and had fought 
against the Turks. Once he was 
sold as a slave, but escaped by 
the aid of a beautiful lady; and 
once he w^as thrown overboard, 
CAPT. JOHN SMITH, far out lYi the sea, and swam to 
the shore. After many adventures in Asia, this 
valiant young soldier came back to England just 
in time to set sail for Virginia. 

King James had appointed a council of seven 
who elected a governor for the colony at James- 
town. But everything was badly managed. A 
dreadful disease broke out and the colony was 
on the verge of ruin. 

Winter came on, and the sick were restored to 
health. Captain Smith was chosen governor, 
and a hard enough time he had of it. He was 
obliged to be very strict. He would not let the 




JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS. 6l 

men eat when they would not work; and every 
time a man swore, a can of cold water was poured 
down his sleeve. Smith himself worked harder 
than any other, and soon there was a great 
change for the better in the town. 

After everything was well started in the settle- 
ment, Captain Smith and a few others explored 
the rivers and the surrounding country. 

One day on the James they frightened away 
some Indians who were busy roasting oysters in 
the shells. The hungry white men thus found 
out how delicious oysters are; but they could not 
know that some day oysters would bring Virginia 
more money than all the gold they were trying 
to find. 

One time they were taken prisoners. Captain 
Smith's friends were all killed; but he showed 
the Indians his compass, and whittled little dolls 
for their children, and proved so entertaining 
that the red men liked him and spared his life 
several days. There is a story that the chief, 
Powhatan, declared that Smith should die; but 
that his little ten-year-old daughter, Pocahontas, 
threvv^ herself before the terrible war club just 
in time to save the captain's life. 

Whether this story be true or not, it is certain 
that Pocahontas was always kind to the English, 




62 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

and many times warned them of dangers. She 
became a Christian and married an Englishman 
named John Rolfe. This marriage caused 
Powhatan to make peace with the 
colony. The English, to please 
him, called him the king of the 
country. Captain Newport, on one 
of his voyages from England, 
brought him a crown. Powhatan 
was so dignified that he would 

POCAHONTAS. ,1 1 , 1 ^1 

not kneel down when the crown 
was put on his head; but his dignity was badly 
shaken up when the cannon was fired off in his 
honor ! 

Captain Smith went to England in i6oq, and 
never returned to Jamestown. For a long time 
after he left, the colonists did not prosper. In 
six months they were all about to start back to 
England when a ship came sailing up the river, 
bringing food, and the new governor, Lord Dela- 
ware. After a while, wives came over; more 
houses were built, and soon there were large 
fields of corn and potatoes and tobacco. 

The city of London sent out two hundred poor 
boys to the colony to work on the tobacco plan- 
tations. In 1619, a Dutch ship brought a cargo 
of negro slaves from Africa. The planters 



PAINS AND PENALTIES. 63 

bought them with tobacco, and that is the way 
slavery began in America. 

The London Company made very strict laws 
for the colony. 

If a woman slandered her neighbor, her hus- 
band had to pay a fine; if she were a scold, she 
was ducked three times into the water; and there 
were many things for which both men and 
women were whipped in public. All the colo- 
nists had to belong to the Church of England; 
and no Quakers nor Roman Catholics were 
allowed to live there. The laws were very 
severe about church-going. If a man stayed 
away from church a single Sunday, he lost his 
portion of food for a week; if he stayed away 
the next Sunday, he was whipped; and for the 
third Sunday's absence he was put to death. 

After a time, the London company let the 
Virginians govern themselves, and then the laws 
were not so severe. 

They chose their own governor; and the men 
whom they elected to make their laws were called 
burgesses. When they met together at James- 
town to transact business, the assembly was 
called the House of Buroresses. 



CHAPTER X. 

MARYLAND AND THE CAROLIXAS. 

Some traders in Mrginia settled along Chesa- 
peake Bay to carry on the fur trade with the 
Indians. 

Soon afterwards George Calvert, or Lord 
Baltimore, as he was called, came over to 
America to find a home for persecuted Catho- 
lics. First, he went to Newfoundland. It was 
too cold and cheerless there to do much farm- 
ing. French vessels hovered around the coast 
to capture the English fishing boats; and so, in 
1629 Lord Baltimore sailed to \^irginia to find a 
better place for his colony. 

But the \'irginians, as we have seen, were 
very bitter against Catholics. 

When Lord Baltimore went back to England, 
King Charles I. gave him the land 
on both sides of Chesapeake bay, 
and it was called Maryland, in 
honor of the queen, Henrietta 
Maria. Before the royal seal was 
put upon the charter. Lord Balti- 
i,oRD BALTiMORi:. more died. This was in 1632. 

64, 




RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 65 

His son, the second Lord Baltimore, inherited 
the Calvert estate, and with it he inherited the 
land in America. In November, 1633, ^^ sent 
over his brother, Leonard Calvert, to act as gov- 
ernor of the colony, and for over a hundred years 
thereafter, a Calvert was governor of Maryland; 
when one Calvert died, another took his place. 

Leonard Calvert took with him three hundred 
and twenty colonists. They were all common 
laborers, except two Jesuit priests and twenty 
tine gentlemen. 

The people had some share in the govern- 
ment, but Lord Baltimore made most of the 
laws himself. Although he was a Catholic, and 
had founded the colony for Catholics, he allowed 
people of every religion, except Jews, to live 
there. 

Many Puritans were driven from Virginia by 
religious persecution and came among the 
Catholics of Maryland to live. Quakers came, 
and although they were sometimes punished for 
refusing to fight in the wars, they were never 
disturbed in their religious practices. 

Li Maryland, as in Virginia, tobacco was used 
as money. Many slaves were bought, and soon 
there were large plantations where tobacco was 
cultivated and shipped to England. 



66 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Although the first English settlements had 
been made in Carolina, they were all failures, 
and the province of Carolina was among the last 
to be colonized. 

In 1653, '^ colony from Virginia settled on the 
Roanoke river. Then a company of planters 
from the Barbadoes purchased a large tract of 
land on Cape Fear river, and, within a year, eight 
hundred people had settled there. They made a 
few simple laws for themselves and had such 
religious freedom that many Quakers, and 
French and German refugees found homes 
among them. 

In 1663, Charles II. gave to Lord Clarendon, the 
Duke of Albemarle and six other English noble- 
men, all the land in North and South Carolina. 
The lordly proprietors decided to make this 
the best government in the New 
World; they had Lord Shaftes- 
bury, the brilliant orator and 
statesman, and John Locke, the 
philosopher, work a long time at 
making the laws. 

In their fine homes in England, 
these scholars wrote out a set of 
very grand laws, indeed. They called the country 
the " Empire of Carolina." Onl}^ the rich were 




JOHN LOCKE. 



SETTLEMENT OF THE CAROLINAS. 6? 

to have anything to say in making the laws; 
and they were called dukes and earls and lords, 
while the poor people were looked upon as slaves. 

But the people of Carolina would not have 
such a government; for they knew that there 
were colonies all around them where men were 
equal before the law, the rich and the poor alike. 

After a long struggle to make them submit, 
the proprietors let the little settlements govern 
themselves. 

North Carolina had been settled first. The 
colonists were much oppressed with taxes, and 
often rebelled against unjust oppressions, but in 
spite of that they prospered. They had fine 
herds of cattle, but the chief industries were 
tobacco raising, the fur 
trade and the making of ,/^ '"~!7^'» ~ 
tar and turpentine from ^ **''' 

the pine tree. , '^ .J^^^ ' *^^„Sk^ 

There was much trouble ^T _ i^"_ >£. |/ 
at first with the governors; ".r^~1?^-- vU^^x^ 
the yellow fever broke out ^,,„^, , ^ 

-^ StTri ] MI NT IN CA.ROI.IN t. 

and a great many colo- 
nists died. Then there were wars with the 
Indians; but in the end, peace was made and the 
Tuscarora Indians, who had given so much trou- 
ble, went north. 



68 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

In South Carolina, the town of Charleston was 
laid out in 1680. The soil was very fertile. 
Rice was cultivated and large shiploads of it were 
sent to England. 

Protestant refugees from France introduced 
the silk worm and planted the grape. A system of 
cheap rents was adopted. Everything was done 
to encourage immigration. Several ships were 
sent to New York, and returned, bringing many 
settlers down to Charleston, free of expense. 

Plantations spread out; and negroes were 
imported so rapidly that they soon outnum- 
bered the whites. After a time the masters grew 
rich from the labor of the slaves. But those that 
could not afford slaves became very poor. They 
could not get w^ork to do unless they would work 
side by side with the negroes, and they were too 
proud to do that. 

So it came about that there were two very 
different classes of white people in South Caro- 
lina — the very poor and the very rich. 

The poorer classes found homes in the western 
part of the state, among the mountains, and lived 
by hunting and cutting down timber to sell. The 
rich planters lived on their farms about Charles- 
ton, which soon became a gay city, famous for its 
dinner parties and fashionable life. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE PILGRIMS. 

The Plymouth company, to whom King James 
had given the north half of Virginia, made no 
permanent settlement for a long time. 

Captain John Smith, when he left Jamestown 
in 1609, went back to England and 
formed a partnership with four Lon- 
don merchants in the fur trade. 
Two ships were freighted with goods 
and put under Smith's command. 

While the crews were having a 
profitable traffic with the Lidians on 
the coast of Maine, their captain 
was exploring the coast from the 
Penobscot river to Cape Cod; he 
drew a map of the region and called / 

it New England. /'> YkM_^ 

Captain Smith now joined the Ply- '/i:/0]fi 

1 1 ""/'h^iti«? '' 

mouthcompany, and many unsuccess- m:^^7m \ 

ful attempts were made to colonize 'S 

the country. fV^,. 

At last, however, without the con- , ,T^TT^^.. 

' ' A MERCHANT S 

sent of king or company, a settle- '^^'^^^• 
ment was made on the shores of New England. 




A LONDON 
MERCHANT. 



70 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



In England, the laws about the church were 
very strict. There were a great many people who 
could not believe just as the Church of England 
required. So they went to other countries, where 
they could worship as they pleased; and because 
they traveled about from place to place they 
were called Pilgrims. 

Some of the Pilgrims went to Holland. The 
Dutch received them kindly ; but work was 
scarce and wages were poor ; and, besides, be- 
cause the people talked a strange language, the 
English did not feel at home in Holland. 
So a hundred of the youngest and strongest 

decided to go to 
America to make 
new homes, where, 
by and by, others 
might come. 

The sixteenth of 
-~ September, 1620, the 
ship"Mayfiower" set 
sail for America. 
The voyage was long. Sailors were still afraid 
to steer their vessels straight across the ocean. 
They first went to the Canary Islands, just as 
Columbus had done; and this made the way 
twice as long as it is to-day. 




THE MAYFLOWER. 



PLYMOUTH ROCK. 7 I 

The Pilgrims had set out for the beautiful 
country of the Hudson where some of their 
Dutch friends had already settled; but a storm 
drove their ship out of its course to the bleak 
shores of Cape Cod. 

Before the Pilgrims landed, they had a meet- 
ing in the ship. They de- * -^ 
clared loyalty to the English ^ft**' (^ V[> W 
king; they pledged them- - '*^f [(,^"[1 
selves to live in peace and ^ ^l^^& W '1/ 
harmony ; and they agreed 
that every man should have > itMn 

an equal vote in the public J^^i^J^i 

affairsof the colony. An elec- ^""^ 

, , , 1 T 1 r^ GOING TO CHURCH. 

tion was held, and John Car- 
ver was elected governor and Miles Standish was 
made captain. 

On the following day the wind blew the ship 
into a harbor, and on the twenty-first of Decem- 
ber, 1620, the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. 

It was wintry weather. They began at once to 
build a big house, where the whole colony could 
stay. Soon they had built houses for all on the 
banks of a clear brook that ran down the hillside 
into the bay. Then they built a meeting-house ; 
it had four cannon planted on the roof to protect 
them while they were at worship. On Sundays 




72 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the men marched with their guns to the church ; 
and behind them came the women and children 
with Governor Carver, Captain Miles Standish, 
and Elder Brewster. The whole town was sur- 
rounded by a stout wooden fence, with gates 
which were fastened at sunset. 

There were deer and wild turkeys in the 
woods, and shad and all kinds of fish in the sea. 
But for all that, the Pilgrims often 
did not have enough to eat. They 
had come too late to plant corn, 
and they had to depend upon the 
Indians for bread. About half of 
them died from hardships the first 
GOV. CARVER'S year. Governor Carver died, and 

CHAIR. 

there were so many graves that 
they leveled them down and planted corn over 
them that the Indians might not see how few 
remained alive to defend the town. 

But they kept up courage through all their 
troubles; and, in the spring, when the "May- 
flower" returned to England, not one of the 
colony wanted to leave the new home. 

William Bradford was made governor after the 
death of John Carver. He was kind but severe. 

Once the Narragansett Indians tied the skin 
of a rattlesnake around a bundle of arrows and 




MILES STANDISH. 



IZ 



sent it to Governor Bradford as a signal of war. 
He filled the skin with powder and bullets, and 
sent it back, and this so frightened the Indians 
that they would not fight. 

Miles Standish soon had enough to do to de- 
fend the colony from the Indians. He had 
fought the Spaniards in Holland and was not 
afraid of anybody. With eighteen picked men 
he once routed a large band of Indians. There 
were many brave men among these Pilgrims of 
Plymouth Rock. 

Edward Winslow, the scholar and friend of 
the Indians, was governor several times. He 
cured the sick Indians and they 
taught him, in turn, how to plant 
corn and cure skins and make 
medicines from roots in the forest. 

The Pilgrims soon began to trade 
beads, knives, fish-hooks, and 
blankets for furs, which they ship- 
ped to England. 

In 162S, the "Mayflower" came 
back with four other vessels which belonged to 
the Massachusetts Bay Company. 

There were two hundred in this colony; and 
there were many educated men and some rich 
men among them. 




A PURITAN 
MAN. 



74 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




A PURITAN 
WOMAN. 



They brought cattle and garden seeds and 
fruit-trees and farming implements and all the 
things needed to settle a new country; and they 
founded Salem, with the honest, clear- 
headed John Endicott as governor. 
They, too, had come to America to 
find freedom in worship; but they 
were not called Pilgrims, but Puri- 
tans, or reformers. 

At this time, in the reign of Charles 
I., Archbishop Laud, of the Church of 
England, was very cruel to all who 
did not believe as he did. If a minister preached 
a sermon or wrote a book that the Archbishop 
did not like, he was sent to the whipping-post or 
might even have his ears cropped. 

The Puritans did not believe in all the cere- 
monies of the Church of England; and because 
they would not follow all the 
rules of the church, they were 
much persecuted. 

In 1630 eight hundred Puritans. 
under Governor John Winthrop, 
came to America. They settled 
Boston, which became the capital 
of the colony. There were many privations, but 
one day just as Governor Winthrop was distribut- 




JOHN WINTHROP. 



NEW ENCxLAND TOWNS. 75 

ing the last meal, a ship from England sailed 
into Boston harbor with food enough for all. 

The Puritans kept on coming. They settled 
Roxbury, Charlestown and other towns in Mas- 
sachusetts. They settled Portsmouth and Dover 
in New Hampshire, which was at that time a 
part of Massachusetts, and was a fine country 
for fishing and trading, and shipping lumber. 
They sent their boats up along the coast of 
Maine which was also a part of Massachusetts. 
There were in IMaine good harbors and fine 
trees for ship-building, and acres and acres of 
meadow lands, through which the mountain 
streams ran swiftly down to the sea; and the 
whole country was famous for its fishing and 
hunting. 

But the Indians were there; and the French 
from the north were troublesome. So it re- 
mained for many years a stretch of sea- 
coast where the colonists caught and dried 
their fish and bought furs and deerskins of the 
Indians. 

After a few years, Plymouth colony and Mas- 
sachusetts Bay colony joined together and made 
the province of Massachusetts, about which there 
will be a great deal to say in another chapter. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SETTLEMENT OF CONNNECTICUT. 

In October, 1635, a colony of sixty families 
started from Boston to the Connecticut valley 
with their cattle; for they had heard that the 
pastures were good along the river. 

It was a tiresome journey. There were hills 
to climb and streams to cross. Winter set in 
before they reached the valley. They built log 
cabins on the west bank of the Connecticut 
river, and called their town Hartford. 

Snow fell thick and fast. Their cattle could 
get no food, and starved to death. They them- 
selves ate the bark of trees and scraped the 
snow from the ground to find acorns. 

They bought a little corn from the Indians; 
but, fearing that they must die if they remained, 
they all went back to Boston. 

They gave such a good report of the valley, 
however, that in the spring a party of a hun- 
dred, led by a great and good man called the 
Rev. Thomas Hooker, started for the Connecti- 
cut valley. They drove their flocks before them 
and reached Hartford in the summer. Soon 

76 



THE PEQUOT WAR. 



11 




HOUSE PROTECTED BY 
PALISADES. 



they had a strong settlement which they called 

the Connecticut colony. This was the first 

colony in America to 

agree that a man who had 

a good character might 

vote on public questions 

without being obliged to 

belong to any church, or to 

have any land or money. 

About this time, Say- 
brook, at the mouth of the Connecticut river, 
was colonized by John Winthrop, Jr., the son of 
Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts. 

A war with the Pequot Indians broke out in 
1636. For months, the Indians drove off the cat- 
tle, burned down houses and killed men, women 
and children around Saybrook. Over a thou- 
sand Indians were on the war-path. They were 
swift and terrible, and at first the white men, in 
heavy breastplates and helmets, could not with- 
stand them. In 1637 Captain John Mason, with 
ninety men, surprised Sassacus, the Pequot chief, 
in his own village and set the houses on fire. 

Hundreds of warriors, squaws, and papooses 
were killed. The whole Pequot nation was de- 
stroyed, and for a long time after this, the settle- 
ments east of the Hudson river lived in peace. 



yS THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

In 1638, Theophilus Eaton and Rev. John 
Davenport of London brought over some colo- 
nists and settled New Haven. They purchased 
land from the Indians; and they all agreed 
together that only church members should have 
a voice in public affairs. 

When the province of New Netherlands came 
into possession of the English, the Connecticut 
country was rapidly settled, and after a time 
the colonies of Connecticut, New Haven, and 
Saybrook were united into the one province, Con- 
necticut, with John Winthrop, Jr., as governor. 
East of Connecticut was a colony established 
by a young Baptist minister, Roger Williams. 
He had come to Salem, Massa- 
chusetts, to escape religious per- 
secution. But in Massachusetts, 
too, he was persecuted. 

The Puritans were not willing 
that those who disagreed with 
ROGER WILLIAMS, them on religious subjects should 
stay in the colony. Roger Williams believed this 
country should be free for all religions. He said 
that it was wrong to force a man to belong to a 
certain church before he was allowed to vote. 

His talk caused a great deal of excitement. 
One man said he had a "wind-mill " in his head; 




ROGER WILLIAMS. 



79 




and Governor Endicott decided to send this 
bold young man back to England. But he 
escaped in the night from Salem, and wandered 
for weeks through the snow, and lived on acorns 
and roots. One time he began to build a house 
in the Plymouth country; but Governor Brad- 
ford told him to seek 
another home. Gov- 
ernor Winthrop of 
Boston wrote him a 
kind letter and ad- 
vised him to go across 
Narragansett Bay 
where the Indians 
owned lands. So with 
five friends, he crossed the bay in a canoe. He 
called the place where they landed Providence. 
The chief of the Narragansetts sold him a large 
tract of land, a part of which he gave to all 
who would settle there. 

Several settlements were made on Narragan- 
sett Bay which were at length united into the 
province of Rhode Island. Protestants, Catho- 
lics, Jews, and Quakers were all welcomed there. 
It used to be said that if a man lost his religion, 
he would be sure to find it again in Rhode 
Island. 



ROGER WILLIAMS S CHURCH AT 
SALEM. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SETTLEMENT OF NEW JERSEY AND DELAWARE. 

New Jersey was for a long time a province of 
New Netherlands. It was first occupied by 
Dutch traders; but Danes and Swedes also 
traded there and the people of the three settle- 
ments did not agree very well. 

After the English got possession of New 
Netherlands, Philip Carteret arrived from Eng- 
land as the governor of East Jersey. He named 
the first settlement Elizabethtown after his wife 
Elizabeth. 

The town and surrounding country were rap- 
idly settled by New Eng- 
land people. They purchased 
their land from the Indians. 
Newark was founded by a 
company of settlers from Con- 
necticut, and little hamlets 
sprang up along the shores 
'^ of the bay as far south as Sandy 
Hook. An assembly was elect- 
ed by the people. Freedom of conscience was 
allowed, and all the laws were just. 




QUAKERS. 



THE DUTCH AND THE SWEDES. 8l 

The western part of New Jersey was bought 
by a company of Friends, or Quakers, in 1677; 
and a set of laws was made as liberal as those 
in Connecticut. 

Before the end of the year, a colony of four 
hundred Friends arrived in West Jersey. 

In 16S2, William Penn and some friends bought 
East Jersey, so that all of New Jersey was 
owned by the Quakers. Under the liberal laws 
of these people, many persecuted Presbyterians 
came from Scotland; and we shall find that after 
awhile, when East and West Jersey were united 
into one province, New Jersey became a divid- 
ing line on slavery and on many other questions 
between the Puritans of the North and the Cava- 
liers of the South. 

Across the bay from New Jersey, to the south, 
lay a country which Lord Delaware had named 
and explored when he was governor of Virginia. 
He found the region very beautiful; but there 
were so many other beautiful places that it was 
a long time before any one went there to live. 

In T630, the Dutch tried to establish a colony 
in this country of Delaware. They built a large 
brick house for their thirty colonists near Cape 
Henlopen on Delaware Bay; and they called the 
place Swanendael, which means, " The vale of 



82 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Swans"; and they put up a high post on \vhich 

\vas a bright copper plate inscribed with the 

coat-of-arms of Holland. 

The copper glittered in the sun and so pleased 

the fancy of a j^oung Indian brave, that he took 

off the plate for an ornament 

The Dutch made such a stirabout this, that his 

tribe put the thief to death. Then, in revenge, 

his relatives slew all the settlers in Swanendael. 
A Swedish colony came to Delaware in 1638. 

They called the country New Sweden; and they 

made their first 
p^ settlement near 

where Wilmington 
now is, and called 
it Christina after 
the little twelve- 
year-old queen, 
Christina, who was 
soon to be the ruler 
of Sweden. They 

planted corn and tobacco, and spun their own 

flax. The women were good housekeepers, and 

the men were strong and industrious. 

Soon, more colonists came, bringing cattle and 

farming tools, and the population increased 

rapidly. 




OLD SWEDISH CHURCH. 



DELAWARE BECOMES ENGLISH. 83 

This did not please tlie Dutch, who said the 
region was a part of New Netherlands. They 
did not want such a thrifty people as rivals in 
trade with the Indians. The Dutch built a fort 
where New Castle now stands. The Swedes 
captured this fort, but the Dutch sent a fleet of 
seven vessels, which recaptured it and con- 
quered the whole country. All who would not 
swear allegiance to the Dutch government were 
forced to leave the country. Thus ended the 
only colony which Sweden planted in the New 
World. The Dutch were delighted over this 
territory which they now had all to themselves. 
The lower part of the noble Delaware abounded 
in shad, and on its many small tributaries were 
large villages of beaver. Then, when New 
Netherlands became English, Delaware became 
English too. Afterward Delaware was a part of 
Pennsylvania, by a grant of land given to 
William Penn, and he established a colony of 
Quakers at New Castle. For many years the 
settlements on both sides of the river had the 
same English laws. 

Protected from the Indians by the other 
colonies around it, Delaware was a peaceful 
little corner of the earth to live in. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

The Quakers were much hated in England. 
They would not take off their hats in the pres- 
ence of their betters; they always said " thee " 
and "thou" to everybody, and they would not 
serve in the army. Besides, they were so good 
that they made the wicked courtiers of Charles 
II. feel ashamed of themselves; 
so they were always being impris- 
oned and persecuted and sent 
into exile. 

One of the proudest men in 
England was Admiral Penn, who 
was a loyal friend of King 
Charles and had loaned him a 
large sum of money. His son William was ex- 
pelled from the University of Oxford because he 
attended a Quaker meeting. 

When Admiral Penn found that William was 
really a Quaker he was much grieved, and sent 
him to the gay city of Paris, hoping he would 
forget his religion; and when the young man 
still kept faithful to his vows, his father turned 
him out of doors. 




CHARLES II. 




WILLIAM PENN. 85 

But when Admiral Penn was on his death-bed, 
he sent for his son, asked his forgiveness and 
left him large estates. 

For the payment of the king's old debt, Penn 
proposed taking land in Amer- 
ica, and Charles gave him 
all the land in Pennsylvania. 
Penn had already been inter- 
ested in the Quaker colonies in 
New Jersey, and he now planned ^*i''h ; 

to take a colony of Quakers to william pknn. 
America, where they would be free to worship 
as they pleased. 

There was great laughing in London about 
the Quaker cowards, who would not fight, going 
out to live among the savages. No one thought 
there would be a soul alive in a week's time. 

Penn sailed from England in 16S2 with a hun- 
dred Quakers, and they landed at New Castle, 
Delaware, where many of them settled. 

Penn was honest and just, and believed that 
America really belonged to the Indians. He 
called all the Indians together who claimed the 
land which he had bought from the king, and 
paid them what they asked for it; he treated them 
so kindly that they were ever after the friends 
of any man who wore a broad-brimmed hat. 



86 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The following year Penn laid out a town on a 
strip of land between the Delaware and Schuyl- 
kill rivers, and called it Philadelphia, or the City 
of Brotherly Love. That same year thirty-three 
ships came over, bringing a whole army of men 
and women; but it was an army of peace instead 
of war. You can fancy the bustle there was 
when the ships unloaded the boxes and chests. 

There were horses and cattle and sheep and 
swine. These neighed and bellowed and bleated 
and squealed; the sailors shouted to one an- 
other, and out of the forest came the sound of 
the axes on the trees, and then tall trees would 
fall with a crash. The men and women and 
children were as busy as they could be. 

Soon a great number of log houses were built; 
a schoolhouse was built, and then a church, and 
then a mill. In three years the city had six hun- 
dred houses, and among them were some good 
brick ones, after the London fashion. 

Of course, most of the settlers were Quakers; but 
Penn said there should be freedom of thought and 
speech for everybody in his colony, and all peo- 
ple found a home in this city of Brotherly Love. 

Thousands of industrious Germans came to 
escape the cruel wars on the Rhine, and they 
bought farms near the city. 



THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE. 



87 




A GERMAN 
COI.ONIST. 



In the year 1729, five thousand Irish Presbyte- 
rians came to Philadelphia, and they proved to 
be a brave and enterprising people. 
Every man who paid tax had a 
right to vote. The settlers did not 
always agree. They quarreled some- 
times like boys and girls in a big 
family, but they kept on prospering. 
Wharves were built out into the water; 
there were busy shipyards along the 
river; and soon a weekly mail was 
distributed between Philadelphia 
and the smaller towns of the colony. 
The great coal mines of Pennsyl- 
vania had not yet been found, but 
there was iron in the mountains, and 
foundries were soon established. 
Factories made linen from the flax 
which was raised. Horses, flour, pota- 
toes, and tobacco were sent to the 
West Indies to be exchanged for sugar, salt and 
a few negro slaves. But the Quakers did not 
believe it was right to own slaves, and soon set 
free all that they had. 

In 1 701 William Penn went back to London, 
never to return; but you will agree that he was 
one of the most wonderful men in colonial history. 




A GERMAN 
COLONIST. 



CHAPTER XV. 

SETTLEMENT OF GEORGIA. 

In England, there were not only very severe 
and unjust laws about religion, but there was 
also a very cruel law about debt. 

The rich oppressed the poor, and thousands 
were thrown into jail every year because they 
were in debt. 

One day, a great soldier and member of Par- 
liament, James Oglethorpe, saw a sick man 

dragged from his starving 
family and thrown into jail. 
He thought that a system 
of laws which would allow 
this to be done must be bad ; 
and he asked Parliament 
to appoint him commis- 
sioner to visit the prisons. 
Through his report, many 
prisoners for debt were let 
out of the jails. But after 
they were free, it was hard for them to find work 
and hold up their heads again. 

The noble-hearted Oglethorpe petitioned 




JAMES OGLETHORPE. 



88 



FOUNDING OF SAVANNAH. 89 

King George to permit him to plant a colony 
for these people in America. The king gave 
him a tract of land between the Savannah and 
Altamaha rivers, to be held in trust for the 
poor. Think of it! The poor down-trodden 
men, pale from prisons, where they had been 
thrown, often through no fault of their own, 
were to have lands and a chance to begin life 
over again. 

Members of Parliament, noblemen, and kind- 
hearted people donated money, and a hundred 
and thirty emigrants set sail with James Ogle- 
thorpe for their new home, which was called 
Georgia after the King. 

On the first day of February, 1733, they se- 
lected a high bluff where Savannah now stands, 
and began to lay out a town; and soon a large 
village of tents and cabins was built among the 
pine trees. General Oglethorpe bought the 
land from the Indians. An Indian chief came to 
see Oglethorpe and brought him a beautiful 
buffalo robe, painted on the inside with the head 
and feathers of an eagle. 

" The buffalo skin means protection, and the 
feathers of the eagle are soft and mean love," 
he said. " Therefore love and protect us"; and 
Oglethorpe made peace with all the Indians. 



90 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The fierce Cherokees came a long way to smoke 
the pipe of peace with their white brother, Ogle- 
thorpe. 

Not only the prisoners for debt, but the 
oppressed from all countries soon found homes 
in Georgia; there were German pilgrims from 
the Rhine; there were Swiss peasants from the 
Alps; there were the Highlanders 
from the hills of Scotland. Some 
of the laws made for these colo- 
nists were very strict; but that 
was necessary for good order 
among so many different classes 
of people. 

A GEORGIAN ^^^^^ ^^^ colouists might not 

COLONIST. become idle, Oglethorpe would 

not permit any slaves to be bought; and that 

they might not be drunkards he forbade any 

rum to be sold. 

After the colony was well started, Governor 
Oglethorpe went back to England and soon 
returned with three hundred more colonists, who 
were nearly all good, religious people. 

He had trouble with the Spaniards in Florida, 
who claimed the territory of Georgia; but he 
built forts and raised volunteers to defend the 
province and then went to England for help. 




KING George's war. 91 

He brought back a regiment of six hundred 
men, A war broke out between the Spaniards 
in Florida and the EngHsh settlers in Georgia, 
which lasted about two years. Governor Ogle- 
thorpe, with a thousand men and a great many- 
Indians, laid siege to St. Augustine; but he 
could not break down the strong walls which 
Indian slaves had toiled sixty years to build. 

Then the Spaniards fitted out a great fleet of 
thirty-six vessels, with more than three thousand 
troops, which sailed to the coast of Georgia. 
They were defeated by the Georgians, and lost 
over two hundred men; so they sailed back to 
Florida. After this war, the settlements had 
peace with both Spaniards and Indians. 

In his old age, Governor Oglethorpe, the 
friend of the oppressed, returned to England to 
live. He carried back with him the blessings of 
thousands whom he had made prosperous and 
happy. 

After he had gone, slavery was introduced 
into the colony; larger plantations of indigo, 
rice, tobacco, and cotton were laid out; rum 
was sold, and many of Oglethorpe's laws were 
changed by the governors who came after him. 
But the name of Oglethorpe is still revered as 
that of one of the greatest men of his times. 



92 



THE STORY OF OIR COUNTRY, 



Georgia was the last of the colonies estab- 
lished by England. 

From the bleak coast of Maine to the sunny 
shores of Georgia, there were settlements where 
the oppressed of all lands had sought homes in 
America. 

The English colonies were crowded close to- 
gether on the narrow slope of land between 
the Appalachian mountains and the sea; to 
the south of them were the haughty Spaniards; 
to the north and west, along the St. Lawrence 
and the Lakes and the Mississippi, were the 
French; while all about them and among them 
were the rude Indians with whom sometimes 
they lived in peace, but more often in deadly war. 




CHAPTER XVI. 

LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. 

At first, the people who came over to America 
to Hve were kept very busy trying to protect 
themselves from the Indians and to get enough 
to eat and to wear; and many died from their 
hardships. 

But after the colonists learned how to plant 
and raise corn, they had plenty of bread; the 
streams furnished fish, and the forests were full 
of game. 

They raised hemp and flax, and the women 
were busy with spinning and knitting, so that 
there were enough clothes to keep everybody 
warm and comfortable. In New England the 
men wore long jackets with a belt at the waist, 
and loose trowsers reaching only to the knee 
where they were tied, and stout leather shoes; 
and both men and women wore short capes and 
high pointed felt hats. The women wore dresses 
of goods which they themselves had spun and 
woven, sometimes trimmed with lace which the 
Pilgrims had learned to knit in Holland. Chil- 
dren dressed much like their parents, and they 



94 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




A SPINNING WHEEIy 
FOR FLAX. 



acted much like them, too. Life was a very 
serious thing in those days, and there was so 
much to do that even the little 
folks were kept busy at work. 

The houses were often of logs, 
and had but two rooms. In one 
room was a wide fire-place where 
food was cooked over the blaze 
in kettles, or on iron spits. Here 
the table was laid with neat, 
wooden bowls, and plates and 
spoons. In front of the fire, was 
a long settle, with a high back to keep off the 
cold, and there were wooden blocks on each side 
of the hearth for the children. 

On the rough walls hung snow-shoes and old- 
fashioned muskets and pikes, ready at a mo- 
ment's notice, if the In- C^ 
dians should come; ears 
of corn, and crooked- 
necked squashes, and 
strings of dried apples, 

and bunches of red pep- // ^^ ^ J-:jz\M!^^M:- 
pers,andflitchesof bacon, a spinning wheel for wool. 
hung from the broad beams overhead. 

In the other room were two wide bedsteads 
with big, puffy feather-beds, and a low trundle- 




THE MEETING-HOUSE. 



95 







CRADLE OE 
PEREGRINE WHITE- 



bed for children; and a ladder led up to the 
garret for the older boys. 

Pine-knots were used often instead of candles, 
and everybody went to bed early. They could 
hear the wolves howling in the 
distance and they must often 
have heard the whoops of the 
Indians. 

Fancy going to a queer little 
log meeting-house with can- 
non in front of it to protect it from the Indians! 
Families were not allowed to sit together in 

church. The men 
sat on benches on 
one side of the 
church and the wo- 
men on the other. 
~' ~- -- - The boys and girls 

Lo^ MEETING-HOUSE. g^t in Separate 

places, sometimes on the gallery stairs and 
sometimes on the steps leading up to the 
pulpit. 

Everybody had to sit very straight and stiff in 
church, and it was thought a dreadful thing to 
smile. There was always a tithing man at hand 
to keep the congregation in good order during 
the sermon. He carried a long rod with a fox 




96 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

tail on one end; and if a man or a boy was so 
unlucky as to fall asleep, he rapped him over the 
head with the hard end, but w^hen a girl or a 
woman nodded he tickled her face with the 
soft, furry end. 

But in spite of the strict rules it is said " a 
wretched boy" would sometimes give a sly dig 
with his square-toed shoe into the boy on the 
step below, or snap a dry kernel of corn at some 
fellow who was looking too serious, or make a 
wry face at a timid little girl v\-ho would straight- 
way hide her face in her apron and shed bitter 
tears. It kept the tithing man busy watching 
them during the long weary hours of the preach- 
ing. He must have " kept one eye out," too, for 
in the old church records it is written how 
Deborah Bangs, a young girl, was fined five 
shillings for " Larfing in the Wareham Meeting 
House," and a boy was fined ten shillings the 
same day; but it is thought that he may have 
laughed louder ! 

The little logschoolhouse had straight benches 
to sit on, and a wide fireplace, and windows 
with oiled paper instead of glass. The school- 
room was almost as solemn a place as the 
church, and the master was feared and respected 
next to the minister. In most of the New Eng-- 



THANKSGIVING. 



97 




LOG SCHOOLHOUSE. 



land towns, boys and girls were obliged to 
attend school and it was the duty of the tithing 
man to hunt up the truants. 

" Children should be seen and not heard," was 
the motto at home; and it was not often that the 
little folks talked ./. 

at the table or sat "T 

about the fire at --,.,' 
night, after the 
chores were done. 
These little Puri- 
tans had never 
heard of Santa 
Claus and did not enjoy Christmas like the 
Dutch children in New York. 

But there was one day they did celebrate, 
and that was Thanksgiving da}^ Everybody 
thought it was right to be merry on Thanksgiv- 
ing, and early in the morning there would be a 
great bustle getting ready to go to the meeting- 
house to return thanks to God for the bountiful 
harvests, and to remember in gratitude the time 
when the ships came from England with food 
for the starving colonies. 

After the meeting, there were gay times with 
cousins from miles away. There were games in 
the corners; there was a feast of cookies and 



98 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 







AN OLD COLONIAL HuUSE OF THE 
BETTER SORT. 



doughnuts and sugar cakes; there were stories 

before the great fire about witches and their 

black charms, and 
about the Indians 
in their war-paint 
and feathers. 

After a time, new 
rooms were added 
to the houses, 
bright andirons 
shone on the 
hearth and more 

pictures and books came into the homes. The 

scattered hamlets grew into large towns; more 

schoolhouses were built and several tithing men 

were kept busy 

hunting up the 

bo}'s w ho were J '[>v|h| j 

tardy or truant. 
Because there 

were so many 

t ow ns , it became "^- 

necessary to send i>-terior of a colonl^l house. 

delegates to meet at one place to make laws for 
the common welfare. When a vote was taken, a 
kernel of corn was for " yes" and a bean was 
for "no". A copy of the laws made was sent 
to each town to be read in public. 




SHOOTING AT A DUMMY. 99 

There were severe penalties for strong drink- 
ing and smoking, swearing, scolding and Sabbath 
breaking. There was a strict law against witch- 
craft; for in those early days even the wisest of 
*he colonists believed in witchcraft. Another of 
the laws was that every town should muster men 
for drill in marching and in carrying arms. So 
boys of sixteen and old men of sixty shouldered 
their muskets on training day. 

They made very awkward squads, indeed; but 
the women and children were proud of their 
soldiers, and followed them along the roads with 
baskets of gingerbread and bottles of harmless 
drinks. Sometimes prizes were offered for the 
best shot on these training clays. A dummy was 
set up and whoever hit the spot most likely to 
kill was the winner; but there was often a 
difference of opinion as to where the fatal spot 
in a dummy might be, and so it was difficult to 
award the prizes. 

This target practice led to great skill with the 
gun in hunting for game necessary for food, and 
in defending the homes from the attacks of 
hostile tribes. 

There began to be a great need for trained 
soldiers, for the Indians were becoming more 
and more troublesome. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

KING rillLir's WAR. 

From the time the Pilgrims at Plymouth had 
received a shower of arrows, the Indians of New 
England had been hostile. 

The Indians themselves were so divided 
that they were always quarreling with one an- 
other, so that it was impossible to keep peace 
with them all. 

An alliance with one tribe was sure to bring on 
the enmity of some other tribe. 

Massasoit, the king of the Wampanoags, made 
a treaty with Governor Carver, which lasted for 
over forty years. 

But when Massasoit died, his son Philip be- 
came chief of the tribe, and there came a great 
change. They had sold their land, piece by 
piece, to the white settlers; and they had taken 
blankets and beads and powder for payment. 
After these things were gone, they began to 
think they had been cheated out of their lands; 
and when the old chief died, the young warriors 
sighed for the lands now blooming under the 
industry of the white men. 



KING PHILIP. 



lOI 



It is said that once when a white messenger 
went to tell some Indians they must move far- 
ther west, a chief asked him to sit on a log. 
Soon he asked him to sit over, and very soon to 
move again, and then again and again, until the 
white man was at the end. " Sit over farther," 
said the Indian. " I cannot," replied the white 
man. "So it is with 
us," said the chief. 
" You have moved 
us as far as we can 
go, and then ask 
us to go farther." 

From the sum- 
mit of Mount Hope 
in Rhode Island, 
King Philip looked 
down upon the lost hunting grounds. The game 
was scared from the forests, and the fish had 
been taken from the streams. 

His warriors were growing restless. For fifty 
years there had been peace, and they wanted 
the excitement of war. Perhaps Philip did not 
really want to break the pledge his father had 
given ; for he was noble and brave. But he 
feared that he would lose control of the tribes if 
he did not lead them in battle. Besides this, 




MOUNT HOPE. 



I02 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



his elder brother had been thrown, it is said, into 
a jail, and had caught his death fever there; 
and some of the warriors who had not obeyed the 
laws of the white men had been arrested, tried, 
and hung. 

So, at last. King Philip sent war belts to the 
different tribes, and they all 
united to destroy the white man. 
At the little town of Swansea 
the Puritans were attacked while 
going home from meeting. Six 
were killed and many were 
wounded. Messengers ran to 
Boston to tell the sad story, and 
signal fires called troops from 
Boston, Plymouth, and all the settlements on 
the coast. 

They hastened to Mount Hope, and Philip fled 
with six hundred warriors to Tiverton. Here, 
concealed in the swamps, the Indians lay in am- 
bush, and killed many English, until they were 
driven out into central Massachusetts. 

The year which followed was a sad one for the 
little settlements on the frontier. Town after 
town was attacked. The people from the 
weaker towns escaped for protection to the 
stronger ones. 




KING PHILIP. 



KING PHILIP'S WAR. 



103 



The Narragansetts, who had years before 
signed a treaty of peace with Massachusetts, 
broke their pledges and joined King PhiHp's 
army. A thousand New England troops now 
marched into Rhode Island, where about three 
thousand Indians were collected in an immense 
cedar swamp, southwest of Kingston. They had 
built a stout fort with one entrance by means of 
a log, which lay across a pond. 

The army arrived here under command of 
Colonel Winslow, and began an assault. The 
first men who mounted the log were swept off by a 
shower of arrows. But the white men were fight- 
ing for their wives and their little children and 
their homes for all time to come ; and they sprang 
on the log faster than the arrows could fly. In 
this way they reached the fort. 

A thousand warriors were slain, and hundreds 
were captured; the old men and women and 
children were burned in their wigwams. 

Philip and a few warriors escaped, to burn 
houses and massacre settlers along the frontier. 
At last, the wife and little son of King Philip 
were captured and sold as slaves in the Bermu- 
das. " My heart breaks ; I am ready to die," 
said Philip. He had fought like a true warrior, 
but the struggle was over. His band of warriors 




I04 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

were in their graves, and he himself was killed 
shortly after by an Indian that 
was friendly to the English. 
Six hundred white men had 
been killed in King Philip's 
war, and thirteen towns were 
in ashes. There was sorrow 
in every home, and starvation 
stared the settlers in the face. 

INDIAN. -T-1 T T 1 • 

1 he Indians were driven out 
of New England, and the tribes beyond the 
Connecticut river begged that the hatchet might 
be buried under a church. That was their way 
of saying that they wanted peace. 

You may think that the colonists were very 
wicked to drive the Indians from their own lands. 
It is well to remember that a few thousand Indi- 
ans claimed vast territories which they did not 
cultivate or even visit the whole year round, and 
which really did not belong to them any more 
than it belonged to the buffalo which roamed 
over the plains. The cities and towns of Europe 
were crowded with poor people, and thousands 
were dying every year from lack of food, to 
whom the fertile valleys of America offered 
homes. The Red men would not cultivate the 
land themselves nor let anyone else cultivate it. 



CHAPTER XVni. 

THE INDIAN CONFEDERACIES. 

You will remember that Columbus called the 
natives he found in America, "Indians," because 
he thought he had found India, 

None of the early explorers knew of what race 
these Indians were ; nor do we to-day know any- 
thing about their origin. Perhaps no one ever 
will know who they were in the beginning, or 
how they came to live in such a savage state. 

In colonial times, the Indians were roaming 
half-naked in the forests. They were not so tall 
as the white men ; their eyes were very black 
and sunk deep under the brow ; their skin was 
copper-colored ; they had small hands and feet, 
and slender, active bodies; and the expression of 
their faces was always sad, but noble and dignified. 

In New England there were several small na- 
tions living in rude huts and wigwams along the 
rivers and bays. They were ruled by kings 
such as Powhatan, of Virginia, who made peace 
with John Smith, or Sassacus, who led the 
Pequots in the war upon Saybrook, or Philip, 
who had ravaged New England. 

105 




EARLY INDIAN TRIBES 

EAST OF THE 

MISSISSIPPI 



106 



INDIANS OF THE SOUTH. IO7 

Besides these small nations, there were three 
great confederacies. One lived in the south, 
one in the north, and one in the north-east of 
what is now the United States east of the Mis- 
sissippi river. 

The Indians of the South were called the 
Mobilians and were divided into many tribes. 

They did not wander about so much as the 
Indians of the North and so were less savage. 
The Cherokees were the Highlanders of Amer- 
ica and lived on the lofty tops of the South- 
ern Alleghanies in the wild and beautiful re- 
gions of Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and the 
Carolinas. 

West of them were the Chickasaws on the 
banks of the Mississippi, who were enemies of 
the French and constantly plun- 
dered their flatboats coming 
down from the Ohio country to 
New Orleans. 

South of them were the Choc- 
taws. They were bright and in- 
telligent, but you would not have 
thought so had you seen them; fi^^thead ixdian. 
for while they were babies their 
heads were pressed flat above the forehead, 
which made them look as if they had no brains 




I08 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

at all; and they were called Flatheads by the 
English and French traders. They had their 
villages on the rich bottoms near the rivers, and 
lived largely by agriculture. 

The Creeks and the Seminoles dwelt among 
the palmettos along the coast of the Gulf of 
Mexico, between the Spaniards of Florida and 
the French of Louisiana. They did weaving 
from buffalo wool, and trimmed their blankets 
with beads. They wove cloth from wild hemp; 
and made baskets from cane, and pottery from 
glazed clay. 

They had two kinds of towns ; white towns 
and red towns. The white towns were for peace 
and no blood could be shed there ; not even an 
enemy in war could be slain there. The red 
towns were for war ; into them came the warriors 
of the whole tribe to plan massacres and to tor- 
ture prisoners taken in war. 

Some of the festivals of the Creeks were very 
beautiful. In early autumn they had the green- 
corn festival, when the first fruits of the season 
were offered as a burnt sacrifice. A high 
priest, in snow-white robe and snow-white moc- 
casins, sat on a white throne fanning the sacred 
fire with the white wing of a swan. The women 
in white and the warriors in paint and white- 



MOBILIAN INDIANS. IO9 

feather head-dresses danced to the music of 
whistles and drums. 

We have already learned how these tribes 
massacred the Spaniards — how Ponce de Leon 
was wounded and his men cut down ; how De 
Soto was attacked and his followers almost all 
destroyed; but the Spaniards had caused this 
treatment by their own cruelty to the natives. 

These Indians of the South met the treachery of 
the English settlers in North Carolina with like 
treachery and death ; but they also made peace 
with the noble Oglethorpe of Georgia. Indeed, 
when they were treated kindly, the Mobilian In- 
dians were found keeping proud state in their vil- 
lages, living on in their old way, though adopting 
some of the civilization of the Spaniards and the 
French. 

But the Algonquin and the Iroquois Indians 
of the North were different foes for the colonies 
to fight. They were treacherous and cruel. 

North of the Mobilian confederacy, beyond 
Kentucky and Tennessee, were the Algonquins. 
They were warlike, and lived by fishing and 
the chase. They cultivated little besides corn. 
They dwelt in rude wigwams of bark or skin. 
They painted their naked bodies and shaved 
off their hair except the scalp-lock, which 



no 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



-=^ 



was one long bunch of hair on the crown of 
the head. 

The Algonquins were constantly at war with 
the Mobilians south of them and the Iroquois 
east of them. 

A large tract of land was used by all three of 
these confederacies, who called the land " Ken- 
tucky," which means " the 
dark and bloody ground." 
No Indians dared dwell 
there. If one tribe met a 
hostile tribe in Kentucky 
during the hunting season 
many scalps were taken. 
Each tribe had a to- 
tem or coat-of-arms, of 
WIGWAM. which it was as proud 

as any duke or marquis. They had 
the totem tatooed on their breasts 
and embroidered on their wig- 
wams with the colored quills of 
the porcupine, and carved on a /" 
high pole at the doorway of their '^^^ 
wigwams; so that when Indians """^^ 
met, they might know friends from ^^'^^-^^^^ '^■"■^''•^^^• 
foes. They had snow shoes for hunting the 
moose and the deer in winter, on which they 






DOMESTIC LIFE OF THE INDIANS. 



Ill 



sometimes traveled forty miles a day. Their 
canoes, made of white birchbark, glided swiftly 
over the rivers and lakes. 

They had medicine men, half doctors and half 
priests, who were thought to possess magical 
power to heal the sick. The Indian wives, or 
squaws, did all the drudgery ; for it was thought 
a disgrace for warriors to carry water or build 
wigwams or hoe corn. The babies, or pap- 
pooses, were tied on a board and were carried 
on the backs of their mothers, or when the 
squaws were busy at their work they were often 
swung up on the limb of a tree. 
If the little pappooses cried it did 
not matter ; for it was thought 
that crying hours at a time 
taught them patience. The boys 
used the bow and arrow almost 
as soon as they could walk. They 
practiced jumping and running 
until they never seemed to tire 
on the longest marches. When they were quite 
small they were allowed to join their fathers in 
torturing the victims at the burning stake, that 
they might learn to see suffering without pity. 

The Indian boys grew up to know the forest 
as the white boy knows his book. A fallen leaf, 




PAPPOOSE. 



112 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




MOCCASINS. 



or the broken moss on the side of a tree, or a 
foot-print on the river's brink, told a whole story. 
In their moccasined feet the 
Indians would glide stealthily 
through the forest like beasts of 
prey, and so cruel were these Al- 
gonquins that the^^ have been 
called the tigers of the human race. 

Their assemblies were called Council Fires. 
They would light a great fire and sit about it 
in a circle ; and while they smoked they would 
talk about " digging up the hatchet," which 
meant war, or "burying the hatchet," which 
meant peace. 

Wampum belts were strings of beads made 
from shells. They were often fashioned into 
beautiful designs, which the warriors could read. 
The wampum belts were 
handed down from father 
to son, and told of treaties 
of peace or of war, or of 
cessions of land, or of 
great bear hunts. 

At certain times of the year the chiefs gathered 
together about the fire and passed the wampum 
belts from hand to hand, while the oldest war- 
rior told the story of each belt ; and the little 




A WAMPUM BELT. 



THE WAR DANCE. 



113 



sons of the chiefs could sit at these fires that they 
might learn the history of their tribe. 

Strings of wampum were also used for money 
and for ornament on great festivals. 

The northern Indians had many ceremonies 
before going on the war-path. At night they 
built a great fire in the forest ; they put on all 
their own ornaments and then borrowed those 
of the squaws and maidens. They painted their 



111, Mm fcr ji' 'i.JL-i ^s!, V^InV 







w-,^" 



THE war-dance;. 
faces and bodies in a hideous way that they 
might frighten their enemies ; they put turkey 
feathers in their hair ; and over their shoulders 
they threw the finest bear and buffalo skins. 
Sometimes they carried shields of buffalo hide or 
of twisted branches of trees. 

Then they set up a pole for their foe, and 
around this imaginary foe they marched slowly 



114 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

at first, singing slow chants. The march be- 
came swifter, the chants grew louder and 
were changed into blood-curdling whoops until 
round and round in a dizzy dance they flew like 
demons. They struck at the post and kicked it 
and stabbed it just as they intended to do to 
their foes on the morrow. They were great 
boasters, and as they whirled about in the frantic 
dance, nearly naked, each would shout the num- 
ber of scalps that he had taken and that his 
father, before him, had taken. When morning 
drew near, the warriors laid aside all their orna- 
ments and hurried away to meet their enemies in 
a real battle. 

The greatest enemies of the Algonquins were 
the Iroquois, or Five Nations. This was a con- 
federacy of five nations until the Tuscarora 
Indians came up from North Carolina, and then 
they were called the Six Nations. They were 
more closely bound together than any of the 
other confederacies. These Iroquois lived in 
central New York, and along the St. Lawrence 
and Lakes Erie and Ontario. 

Instead of the rude wigwams of the Algon- 
quins, the Iroquois lived generally in houses of 
wood covered with elm bark. These were called 
"long-houses," because they were very much 



THE IROQUOIS. II5 

longer than they were wide. A long-house was 
divided into many rooms, and there was one 
family in each room. From end to end of the 
long-house ran a long hall, Iii>a. 

closed at the ends with j^^, . - "" 'J^C 

skins, and having openings r^X-^-^v-----^-''''''^ 'm|if 
in the roof above the fire -iliyJ.5.jg,,,,w.^5-^,^^^:; 
pits. Four rooms had one 

^ . . 1 • 1 11 1 LONG-HOUSE OF THE 

nre pit ni this hall, where iroouois. 

four families warmed themselves and cooked 
their food. Thus, if an Indian said he lived in a 
house with five fires, you might know that he was 
an Iroquois, and lived in a long-house with 
twenty families in it. These long-houses were 
warm, roomy, and tidily kept by the squaws. 
There were raised bunks about the walls for beds; 
and from the roof-poles hung strings of dried 
squash and pumpkins, and rows of corn braided 
by the husks. 

The Iroquois were haughty and warlike. 
Sometimes they went down the Ohio in a long 
line of canoes and laid waste the country as far 
west as the Mississippi. They were much feared 
by all the Algonquins. The Indians of New 
England, east of them, ran like sheep when the 
cry 'Troquois! " rang through their villages and 
almost all of the tribes paid them tribute. 



Il6 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Now, the French, when they came to settle on 
the St. Lawrence, did not know anything about 
the different tribes; and when the Hurons on the 
north bank of the river begged Samuel Cham- 
plain to aid them in a war against the Iroquois, 
he shouldered his gun and went along with them. 

The Iroquois had never heard the report of a 
gun; and when they saw this "white man with 
thunder in his hands " killing their warriors to 
the right and to the left of him, they fled in 
great fright. In revenge for this shame which 
the French had brought upon them, the Iroquois 
bought guns of the Dutch, who were just settling 
the land about the Hudson. Then they made 
peace with New Netherlands. The Iroquois chief 
held one end of a white wampum belt of peace 
and asked th-e Dutch governor to hold the other 
end; which was the Indian fashion to agree to be 
friends. Then they buried a hatchet, and the 
Dutch governor promised to build a church over 
the spot so that the hatchet might never be 
taken up; and after that there was always peace 
between the Iroquois and the Dutch. 

When the Iroquois had learned to use their 
guns, they soon conquered the hostile tribes. 
They forced the French to go up through the 
great lakes to reach the Ohio and the Mississippi 
valleys. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

TROUBLES WITH THE FREN'CH. 

In Europe the nations of France and England 
were enemies. The}' had long been jealous of 
each other on the sea, and now they were jeal- 
ous of each other on the land. 

We have seen how the French claimed all the 
rich beaver-lands of the Ohio and the ^lissis- 
sippi valleys, because of the dis- 
coveries and settlements of ^la.r- 
quette and La Salle. 

But the English claimed these 
lands, too. England declared that 
not only the x-\tlantic coast which 
the Cabots had explored was hers, 
but that the Pacific coast and all 
the lands lying between the two 
oceans were hers, because of the discoveries of 
Sir Francis Drake. 

To be sure, Queen Elizabeth herself had said 
that the discoveries of Sir Francis were of little 
worth without settlements; but the succeeding 
monarchs gave away grants of lands, as if they 
did not take the French claims Into account. 




FATHER MAR- 
OUETTE. 



ii; 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




JESUIT PRIEST. 



Then when the EngHsh colonists saw that the 
strip of country between the Alleghany moun- 
tains and the sea was too narrow 
for them, they began to look toward 
the west for settlement. 

But there stood the French, 
snapping their fingers at them as 
they built fort after fort along the 
great rivers. 

The French made the Indians 
their friends. They treated the 
chiefs as they did their own kings; they called 
the rivers, lakes, and mountains by the Indian 
names; they married the Indian 
daughters. To this day, in 
Canada, you may see black-eyed 
boys and girls trooping off to 
school who call themselves 
French; but they had grand- 
mothers or grandfathers whose 
mothers were Indians. The 
French missionary priests 
risked their lives to carry the cross among the 
savages; they healed the sick and comforted 
those who mourned. The French soldiers taught 
them to build strong forts that they might the 
better protect themselves from their enemies. 




A FRENCH CANADIAN. 



ENGLISH AND FRENCH TRADERS. II9 

But the English did not marry the Indian daugh- 
ters; they treated the chiefs with contempt; they 
gave EngHsh names to all the rivers, lakes, and 
mountains; and instead of sharing the land with 
the natives, they wanted all of it for themselves. 

Then the English and French both wanted the 
fur trade of the Indians. The French pleased the 
Indian trappers best; but the Eng- 
lish gave them the highest price '■'* 




for their furs. It took a large bea- 
ver skin to buy from the French ^ 
what could be bought from the 
English with a small mink skin. 

At length, when these two nations came to 
war with each other, the Iroquois joined the Eng- 
lish, and the Hurons and Algonquins joined the 
French, and their wars were called the French 
and Indian wars. First, in 1689, the French and 
Indians attacked some English settlements in 
Maine; then the Iroquois and the English sur- 
prised some French settlements about Montreal, 
and killed very many and took many prisoners. 

One winter, when the snow was deep, the 
French and Indians marched against Schenec- 
tady, New York. The town was defended by a 
high palisade fence. There were two gates, 
but they were open. Some one had warned the 



I20 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



settlers that the French would come; but they 
laughed at the idea as they looked out over the 

miles of snowdrifts; 



and they set up 
snow images to 
guard each gate 
while they t h e m- 




rt 



^\'*if*1^'*~~^^ J , J^'i^M^ selves slept. The 

)ii I ''''P ''iT'l^^^fe^' enemy crept into 
^^ ' ^^^^'^'' the town, raised 

---'5 '^'- ^ ^-----£^- '.^ l-}^g terrible war- 

PAUSADED TOWN. ^^^^p ^^^^ b e ga U 

the attack. Men, women, and children were 
killed, and the village was set in flames. Some 
escaped from their 
beds, and ran six- 
teen miles through 
the snow to Albany; 
but almost all who 
were not killed were 
taken prisoners. 
In 1704 Deerfield, 
in the western part 
of Massachussets, 
was destroyed by the French Indians. It is said 
that Priest Nicholas had persuaded some con- 
verted Indians to save up their skins of otter and 




ATTACK ON SCHENECTADY. 



THE ATTACK ON DEERFIELD. 



121 




FRENCH costume; 

OF THE ITTH 
CENTURY. 



beaver and foxes, and send them to France to buy 
a bell for the little parish church at St- Francis. 
The ship which brought the bell 
was captured by the English, and 
the bell was hung in the meeting- 
house at Deerfield. 

Father Nicholas and his braves 
marched to rescue the bell from 
the heretic English. They killed 
more than a hundred of the in- 
habitants and carried the rest 
away as captives. And so these 
cruel wars went on for many years. Sometimes 
the French and sometimes the English were vic- 
torious; but there was always loss 
of life and great suffering among 
the settlers in both countries. 

The war went on until the Eng- 
lish colonies united together to 
defend the settlements from their 
common foe. Port Royal, in Nova 
Scotia, was taken from the French 

FRENCH COSTUME 1^1 t- 1 • 1 • 11 

OF THE iTTH by the English m 1710, and the 

CENTUR\. following year a large fleet bearing 

seven regiments came from England to assist the 

colonists, but while sailing up the St. Lawrence 

river to make an attack on Montreal, a storm 




122 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY, 



■■-rr-- \V^.»^ . 



dashed eight vessels to pieces, and nine hundred 
men were drowned. The remaining ships re- 
turned to England, and the colonial troops dis- 
banded at Boston. 

Treaties were made between England and 
France, and for a time there was peace. 

King George II. of England had promised to 
give to the Ohio Land Company of Virginia a 
large tract of land west of the Alleghany moun- 
tains, if the company would plant a colony there 
of one hundred families, and in 1750 the com- 
pany sent Christopher Gist 
down the Ohio river to 
examine the country. 

Butbefore the Ohio com- 
pany could settle the land, 
the French drove out the 
few English traders and 
sent word to the colonies 
that the English must keep away from French 
territory. It was not an easy matter, however, to 
keep the English trappers and traders away from 
this rich fur country. 

About this time a young trapper, John Stark, 
from New Hampshire, and two friends, were 
looking after their traps. One friend was killed 
by the Indians. John Stark and his other com- 




BEAVERS. 



RUNNING THE GAUNTLET. 



123 



panion were dragged as prisoners to the Indian 
village, where warriors, squaws, and children re- 
ceived them with shouts of cruel joy. They clam- 
ored to see the white men run the gauntlet. 

This meant that they should run between two 
rows of men armed with sticks; each Indian 
would give the prisoner a whack as he passed. 
First ran Stark's friend: "Whack! whack ! whack!" 
went the blows, and the poor man's flesh was 
black and blue. 

John Stark was young and strong, and when it 
came his turn to run the gauntlet he went like a 
flash. He snatched 
a stick from the 
nearest Indian and 
swung it about, 
strikingto the right 
and to the left of 
him, till the war- 
riors howled with 
pain. They set him running the gauntlet. 
to hoeing corn, but he dug up some hills of corn 
and then threw the hoe into the river. 

You think that would have made the warriors 
angry, but it pleased them. They said he was a 
brave fellow, and they wanted him to be their 
chief. At last Stark paid the Indians a hundred 




124 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

dollars and was set free. We shall meet him 
again and again in the history of the colonies, 
and we shall always find him fearless in danger 
and faithful to his friends. 

The French and Indians destroyed whole 
villages of the Miami Indians who were friends 
of the English. So the chiefs of many tribes, 
led by the Iroquois, met Benjamin Franklin of 
Pennsylvania, and other delegates from the col- 
onies, at Albany, and signed a final treaty of 
alliance with the English. 

Thus we find the English and the Iroquois 
marshaling their forces against the French and 
the Algonquins in the struggle for control of the 
country west of the mountains. 

Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia now wrote a 

letter to the commander of 

^^if i^^^Sl' ^'^^ ^^^^ French posts in the up- 

'"^ S ~^^i^^ P^'' Ohio valley, in which 

•.*' - /i " ^^.y^ he explained the claims of 

rr\,:l--~ England to the country. 

BIRTHPLACE OF WASHING- Thc letter was given to 

George Washington, then 

twenty-two years old. There is so much about 

George Washington in this book, that you will 

want to know something of his early life. 

He was born in Westmoreland county, Vir- 



THE BOY SURVEYOR. 125 

ginia, on the twenty-second of February, 1732. 
His father died when George was only eleven 
years old. When he was in school he studied his 
lessons diligently; but he loved outdoor sports, 
and excelled most of his playmates in running 
and wrestling, and other games. 

He spent his vacations with his brother Law- 
rence, who lived at Mount Vernon on the Poto- 
mac river. Sometimes a ship-of-war was an- 
chored in the river, and its officers would be 
guests at Mount Vernon. So he heard a great 
deal about campaigns in Europe and cruisings 
against pirates on the seas. He became anxious 
to go to sea, but because his mother could not 
consent that he should be a 
sailor, he studied surveying. 

Most of the land in Virginia 
was a wilderness in those 
days, and good surveyors 
were in great demand. When 
George was only sixteen 
years old, he was employed Washington survey- 
by Lord Fairfax to survey 
his lands between the north and south branches 
of the Potomac. George spent several months 
at this work, crossing the mountains, swimming 
the rivers, and camping in the forests. 




126 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

But this rough Hfe had helped to prepare him 
for the mission on which he was now sent by- 
Governor Dinwiddie. It was a long and danger- 
ous journey. Young Washington went through 
forests and over frozen rivers; the compass was 
his guide by day, and the north star by night. 

After much suffering, Washington reached the 
end of his journey and delivered the letter; but 
the French commander declared the country be- 
longed to the French and would be defended by 
bayonets. So Washington started back to Vir- 
ginia to make his report to the governor. On 
the way, he was nearly drowned in the Allegheny 
river when a block of ice slipped from under his 
feet; hostile Indians shot at him from behind 
the trees; wolves followed on his track. 

Soon after this, the French drove away some 
English who were building a fort at the place 
where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers 
join to form the great Ohio river; and they 
themselves built a strong fort there which they 
named Fort Duquesne, after the French gov- 
ernor at Montreal. George Washington was 
now made a colonel; and with a small army he 
tried to drive the French away from their fort; 
but he did not succeed, and for a time the Ohio 
valley remained in possession of the French. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 

The English colonists had learned a lesson 
from their wars with King Philip. They had 
learned that in union there is strength. 

At Albany, in a congress of delegates from the 
colonies, they decided to unite together in this 
war against the French, and they asked England 
to send an army to help them. 

King George II. sent General Edward Brad- 
dock with two regiments to America. General 
Braddock met the governors of all the colonies 
at Alexandria, in Virginia, and arranged a cam- 
paign against Fort Duquesne. 

Braddock had been told by Parliament not to 
allow any Americans to be officers in the British 
army, and the red-coated British soldiers looked 
contemptuously at the awkward young farmers 
in home-spun, and made much sport of them. 

But young George Washington was appointed 
aid-de-camp to General Braddock, because he 
knew the road to Fort Duquesne. Washington 
tried in vain to explain the frontier way of fight- 
ing, so that the British soldiers might be pre- 



127 



128 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




Ph','' 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



pared to meet the Indians. General Braddock 
would not listen to anything Washington said. 
He set the music to playing 
and the flags to flying as he 
marched forward with his vet- 
erans, just as they had always 
marched on the battle-fields 
of Europe. 

Two thousand soldiers were 
stretched out into a narrow 
column four miles long^ust 
what the Indians, who were skulking behind 
trees and lying ready in the branches overhead, 
would want them to do. 

Washington urged Braddock to send out 
scouting parties in advance of the army to see 
whether Indians were not hiding in the neighbor- 
hood; but at this advice Braddock flew into a 
great rage. "The idea," he cried, "of a green 
young backwoodsman trying to teach a British 
officer how to fight ! " 

It would have been better had he listened, as 
we shall soon see. On the ninth of Jul3% 1755, 
at about seven miles from Fort Duquesne, the 
French and Indians began firing at the advanc- 
ing army. Hidden foes shot down the British, 
who could see nothing to shoot at but trees. 



THE DEFEAT OF BRADDOCK. 



129 



When the Americans stood behind trees, or 
threw themselves on the ground to fight Indian 
fashion, Braddock swore at them for not follow- 
ing the rules of war. How could these brave 
men follow the rules of war in an American 
forest with Indians as their foes ? 

General Braddock had five horses shot from 
under him, and at last fell mortally wounded. 
For three hours the battle went on. Then, too 
late, Braddock turned to the brave Washington 
and asked him what to do. " Retreat," said 
Washington, whose coat was riddled with bullets. 
The retreat began. Seven hundred men were 
left dead on the field, and all the baggage was 
lost. The victorious Indians reaped a rich har- 
vest of spoils, and returned to Fort Duquesne 
dressed in the gold-laced coats and the cockade 
hats of the British officers. 

So France was left in possession of the Ohio 
V^alley for several years; but the war continued. 
After Braddock's defeat, the Indians despised 
the English more and more, and renewed the at- 
tacks on the settlements. 

The English now claimed that they feared a 
rebellion among the Acadians in Nova Scotia. 
They said that it would only be natural for these 
people, who were French, to join their kinsmen on 



130 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the St. Lawrence. So a fleet with about a 
thousand troops was sent to Acadia. The 
soldiers forced the inhabitants to give up their 
firearms and then drove them down to the coast 
Hke sheep, and packed them by thousands into 
the waiting ships. Wives were separated from 
husbands, sisters from brothers, and whole fami- 
lies were scattered among the English colonies 
never to see one another again. Many years 
afterwards the poet Longfellow wrote the story 
of Evangeline, which tells of the destruction of 
Acadia; and I am sure you will read it some day 
to find out how very sad this war in Acadia was. 
The British and colonial ar- 
mies made several attacks upon 
Crown Point on the shore of 
Lake Champlain, upon Niagara 
between the lakes, and upon 
Louisburg on Cape Breton at 
the mouth of the St. Lawrence; 
MARouis DE but they could not conquer the 

MONTCALM. 1 1 , 

rrench, who now had the great 
general, Montcalm, to command their armies. 
Robert Rogers, of New Hampshire, enlisted 
a company of brave hunters and trappers, 
which he called Rangers; and he chose as their 
captain the man who had run the gauntlet be- 




FRENCH SUCCESSES. I3I 

tween the Indian warriors, John Stark. He was 
just the man to be a leader, for he knew all the 
Indian trails and was as brave as a lion. 

The Rangers wore green jackets, and each man 
had a rifle and a long knife. They were always 
in the thickest of the fights; but they were obliged 
to obey the British generals, who did not under- 
stand Indian warfare, and so we find that in spite 
of the brave deeds of the Rangers, the French 
were almost always victorious. 

Under ^Montcalm, a company of French sol- 
diers planned to attack Fort William Henr}', a 
stout British fort on Lake George. The war- 
riors of thirty-three Indian nations assembled at 
Montreal to assist the French in this enterprise. 

Montcalm sang the war song with the tribes, 
and so won their hearts by his flatter}-, that they 
gave pledges to obe}- him in any undertaking. 

On the second of August, 1757, a chain of 
boats surrounded the fort on the lake side, while 
the Iroquois and the French troops approached 
from the land side. 

Fort William Henry was defended by onl}' five 
hundred English, who, after a siege of six days, 
withdrew. At the close of the year 1757, the 
French were in possession of the Ohio Valley, 
Lake George, and Lake Champlain. 




CHAPTER XXI. 

CANADA BECOMES AN ENGLISH PROVINCE. 

Parliament was in despair at the misfortunes 
of the armies in America, when a new leader, 
William Pitt, became prime min- 
ister of England. He was a 
great orator and statesman. He 
had never been in America, but 
he understood the American peo- 
ple better than many in parlia- 
ment who had spent years 

WILLIAM PITT, 

EARL OF CHATHAM, amoug tile colonies. 

The new prime minister said that the Ameri- 
cans must be given posts of honor in the British 
army; for they understood the country and the 
Indian ways of fighting. He spread the map of 
the French and the American colonies out be- 
fore him and marked all the roads and rivers and 
lakes, and noted all the little settlements and 
the larger towns, and where the Indians had 
their hiding places; and at last this great man 
knew the map of America as well as he did that 
of Europe. 

In 1758, General Amherst seized Louisburg on 
Cape Breton Island; and General Forbes, with a 



THE KING SENDS NEW ARMIES. 



^33 



British army, and George Washington, with 
regiments from the colonies, took Fort Duquesne 
and named it Fort Pitt in honorof the great man 
who had planned these attacks. 

These victories aroused enthusiasm in Eng- 
land. Parliament voted large sums of money to 
carry on the war. Soldiers came from Scotland, 
Ireland and England ; recruits rallied from all 
the American colonies. Many of the colonists 
were farmers who had just left their plows; they 
were poorly clad in homespun or buckskin, and 
some were ragged and barefooted ; and their 
guns were of all shapes and sizes. 

The Scotch Highlanders, in their bright plaids, 
and the red-coated English grenadiers, looked 
at first in contempt at these men 
in linsey-woolsey, who could not 
march in line. But soon scorn 
was turned to admiration at their 
deeds of valor on every field; and 
even the generals listened to coun- 
sel from these sturdy frontiersmen. 
William Pitt now planned for a 
stubborn campaign which would 
conquer Canada and put an end to the quarrels 
between the French and the English colonies. 

General Johnson was to go west and conquer 




HIGHLANDER. 



134 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Fort Niagara, which was the key to the great 
lakes, the Illinois and the Mississippi; General 
Amherst was to take Ticonderoga and Crown 
Point on Lake Champlain, and then move on to 
Montreal ; General Wolfe was to sail up the 
St. Lawrence and capture Quebec. 

Niagara, Ticonderoga, and Crown Point were 
taken, and only Quebec and Montreal remained. 

The gallant General Wolfe, with live thousand 
men, encamped on the south bank of the St. 



~^'^=H 




V m^^- 



QUEBEC, FROM THE SOUTH BANK OF THE ST. LAWRENCE. 

Lawrence, opposite Quebec. The city, on a 
high cliff, was guarded for miles by batteries; 
and within its walls was General Montcalm with 
about five thousand men. 

English war-ships bombarded the city, crush- 
ing the houses and setting many of them on 
fire. Then a long line of French boats sailed 
toward the English fleet; they were smeared 
over with tar and filled with burning pine-knots. 
But the English sailors sprang into the river and 



THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. 



135 




pushed the burning boats away with their hooks, 
so that they did no harm. 

Days passed. No landing place could be 
found. At last General Wolfe saw some French 
and Indians climb a ravine up 
the steep cliff; and so at midnight, 
on the twelfth of September, 1759, 
his boats crept silently up the 
river to the same spot. The 
soldiers sprang upon the beach 
GENERAL W01.FE. and climbed the steep cliffs. The 
French guards fled; and, outside of the city, on 
the Plains of Abraham, the 
English army waited till 
break of day. 

When the astonished 
Montcalm saw the enemy 
he marched against them 
confident of victory; but in 
fifteen minutes the French 
flag was hauled down and 
soon the English Cross of 
St. George was flying over 
the ramparts of Quebec. Both brave generals 
fell in the awful battle; and England honored 
both with one tall shaft of marble. 

Montreal was taken five days after Quebec. 




WOLFE-MONTCALM MONU- 
MENT. 



136 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The territory east of the Mississippi claimed by 
France, was ceded to England, and that west of 
the Mississippi and New Orleans, to Spain. And 
so France lost all her possessions in America. 

The Indians on the Illinois, the Wabash, and 
the Ohio would not submit to their old-time foes. 
The French traders incited the Indians secretly; 
they told them that the Great French Father 
was only asleep and would soon come to deliver 
his children from their distress; that the cruel 
English would sell their wives and children as 
they had sold King Philip's wife and child. But 
the French refused to aid the Indians openly; 
and so Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawas, in heroic 
despair, made one last fight for the lost hunting 
grounds. He stationed Indian warriors at the 
passes of the rivers and the lakes, so that the 
hated English could not reach the French posts. 
For two years he held possession of all the west- 
ern forts, except Detroit. Settlers on the frontiers 
were massacred and villages were burned. 

When a large English army advanced toward 
the west, the allies fled. Pontiac was left alone. 
He declared that the French had deceived him, 
and signed a treaty of peace with the English. 
Pontiac always kept his pledge; and peace for 
a while came to the troubled frontier. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

TAXES ON THE COLONIES. 

We have already seen how different the first 
colonies were from one another in their religious 
beliefs. 

They were also different in their ways of liv- 
ing. The Southern colonies, Virginia, the Caro- 
linas, Maryland and Georgia were settled by 
two classes — the very rich and the very poor; so 
that some people worked hard all day long, while 
others did not work at all. There were many 
large plantations in the South and very few 
towns. The better class of colonists sent their 
children to school; and sometimes, the boys of 
the rich were sent off to England or to France 
to be educated; but there were no public schools, 
and many of the people were very illiterate. 

In the North, the climate and soil were not 
adapted to large plantations. The people lived 
in towns where they had foundries for the 
manufacture of iron wares, and ship-yards for the 
building of ships, and factories for the weaving 
of cloth. 

And there were towns on the coast where the 

137 



138 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

fishermen lived who salted and dried their fish 

for the markets. 

The people of the North did most of their own 

work, and men and women thought it a duty to 

be busy. 

There were free schools in all the villages. It 

was said that every grown person who had been 

born in New England could read and write. 
It was well for these colonies of the North and 

of the South that the mountain walls of the 

Appalachians had hemmed them in together so 

long. 

They had stood side by side in the Indian 

wars fighting for one common cause. And now 
that these wars were over, they 
had more reason than ever to 
join hearts and hands. Eng- 
land began to oppress them. 
The new king, George III., was 
stupid and selfish. He listened 
to the counsel of the " British 
Board of Trade" which had 

begun to grow jealous of American products. 
They wanted the colonies to buy everything of 

English merchants. They were not willing that 

Americans should buy wares of other countries, 

even if they could be bought cheaper. 




THE STAMP ACT. 



139 



They would not allow the New England 
colonies to build furnaces for making steel, 
because England wanted to sell steel to the 
colonies. 

Then negroes were forced into the Southern 
colonies to increase the slave-trade from Africa; 
the colonists thought they had enough slaves, 
and they were afraid that the negroes would 
soon outnumber the whites. They sent peti- 
tions to England asking that no 
more Africans be brought to the 
South; but the traffic in slaves 
went on just the same. 

There were a great many 
other things done which in- 
creased the ill-feeling of the 
colonists against the mother 
country. 

In 1765, while William Pitt, 
the friend of the Americans, lay 
ill, Parliament passed a law that 
every newspaper and every public document, 
such as a marriage contract or a deed to prop- 
erty, must have a stamp on it, bought from 
England. 

This was a new way to tax the people, and it 
made them very angr3^ 




STAMP. 



140 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

There were public meetings held to protest 
against the new law. 

Patrick Henry, from the mountains of Vir- 
ginia, read in the House of Burgesses a declara- 
tion that Virginians were English with English 
rights; that the people of England voted their 
taxes and therefore the Virginians should vote 
theirs, too. 

The house where the young orator spoke was 
crowded with people, and among those who 
listened to him were two future 
presidents of the United States, 
George Washington and Thomas 
Jefferson. They believed, with 
all the rest, that Patrick Henry 
was right and that the Americans 
should have something to say 

PATRICK HENRY. _ 

about their own taxes. 

Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsylvania, and John 
Adams, of Massachusetts, made fiery speeches 
against the Stamp Act, and said that soon every- 
thing w^ould be taxed without the American 
people having a word to say about it. 

People began to try to get along without 
any goods from England. They raised flax, 
more and more, that they might weave their 
own cloth. Many in Boston signed an agree- 





THE TAX ON TEA. I4I 

ment not to eat mutton, that there might be 
more wool to spin. 

In Virginia, a hundred ladies dressed them- 
selves in home-spun gowns r^-' 
and went to a ball given 
by the English governor. 

No one would use the 
stamp paper, and it was 
burned as the ships brought 
it into port. 

So Parliament had to 
repeal the Stamp Act the ~ ~^ 

T-1 1 • BIRTHPLACE OP FRANKLIN. 

next year. 1 he colonies 

were delighted at this repeal of the tax, and for 
a time it seemed that all the trouble with Great 
Britain was at an end. 

But there was a strong party in Parliament 
which was determined that the Americans should 
be taxed, and a new bill was soon passed which 
put a duty on tea. 

The money collected by this duty was to be 
used to support a small army in America, and to 
pay government officials who would be under 
the control of Parliament. 

This seemed as bad as the Stamp Act. The 
people now said they would not drink tea; and 
they made hot drinks out of sage and sassafras. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 

The people of Boston were so rebellious in 
these troubles with England that an army of 
British soldiers was sent to Boston to " reduce 
them to reason." But the citizens would not 
quarter the soldiers in their houses ; so they 
were put in the court-house. They were very 
insolent ; they kicked down the snow-men and 
destroyed the snow-slides of the schoolboys and 
interfered with their sports. The boys went to 
the governor to complain about it. 

"What!" he said, "have your fathers been 
teaching you rebellion?" 

" No one sent us, sir," said a fine lad, holding his 
hat in his hand and looking with respect at the 
governor. " We have never insulted your troops, 
sir, but they spoil our snow-slides. They call 
us young rebels and tell us to help ourselves 
if we can ; and the captains only laugh at us 
when we complain. We will bear it no longer." 

The general ordered the damage to be re- 
paired. There is no doubt but the Boston boys 
were impudent, sometimes. It is said that they 



THE BRITISH TROOPS IN BOSTON. 



143 



called the red-coated soldiers " Lobsters" and 
" Bloody-backs;" but I am sure they would not 
have done so if they had been treated right. 

The ill-feeling over the army in Boston grew 
so strong that a street fight took place, when 




I A, V-J^ 
^v.;ii'V^^*'/ THE 

THIRTEEN COLONIES 

at tlie end of 
THE nEVOLUTION. 

(ahadtd Areaj 



144 "THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

three men were killed and many were wounded. 
The troops were then taken from the city. 

On the sixteenth of December, 1773, three 
ships lay at anchor in Boston Harbor laden with 
tea. When the English governor refused to send 
the tea back to England, some men disguised as 
Indians rowed out in the moonlight to the ships 
lying at anchor, and tossed all the tea overboard 
into the sea. The next morning young Paul Re- 
vere rode fast to New York to tell the people what 
Boston had done with the tea. The merchants 
did not dare unload their tea ships at the harbor 
of New York, but sent them back to England. 

At Annapolis, in Maryland, the tea was burned. 
At Charleston, South Carolina, it was landed ; 
but no one would buy it and so the tea rotted in 
the cellars. You may be sure something was 
done to punish Boston for having her tea-party. 

Parliament declared that nothing should enter 
the port or leave the port of Boston, except by 
way of Marblehead, where it should be examined 
by British officers. 

This stopped the commerce of Boston. All the 
colonies were angry now and showed sympathy 
with Boston by sending aid overland. Flour 
and rice came from the Southern colonies, corn 
from the Middle colonies, and droves of sheep 



FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 



145 



from different parts of New England; and money 
was sent in for the poor, from them all. Thus 
the colonies became united more and more. 

Then England annexed all the western lands to 
Canada — ■ lands 
which the Ameri- 
cans had helped to 
win from the 
French, and which 
Virginia and Con- 
necticut and sev- 
eral other colonies 
claimed as their 
own, because the 
kings had given 
them the land. 

It soon became 
very plain that 
England was trying to win the friendship of the 
French colonists and their Indian allies that they 
might aid her if war should break out. 

All the colonies now sent delegates to an As- 
sembly at Philadelphia. This assembly, which is 
called the First Continental Congress, met in 
Carpenters' Hall in September, 1774. A Decla- 
ration of Rights was adopted, and the King 
was asked to give the colonies the right to form 
a General Assembly and to vote their own taxes. 




CARPENTERS' HALL, PHILADELPHIA. 



146 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Parliament answered the Continental Congress 
by sending word to General Gage, who was gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, to reduce the crazy 
Americans to obedience; and then it sent a fleet 
with ten thousand British soldiers to help him. 
So Boston came again under military rule. 

Tents were pitched on the Common. Red- 
coats with bayonets marched up and 
down the streets. British warships, 
instead of her own merchant vessels 
which had once made her people so 
prosperous, stood in Boston's harbor. 
Now there w^ere some citizens of 
Boston who allowed the British sol- 
diers to live at their houses and 
A BRITISH treated them with a great deal of 
S01.DIER. respect. They did not think the col- 
onies were doing right to rebel against the king. 
Most of these w-ere rich merchants who were 
afraid they would lose trade with England ; or 
they were men in high positions where they had 
been put by the king. 

So there were two parties in Boston — the To- 
ries, who wished to obey the king, and the Whigs, 
who refused to obey his unjust laws. Soon there 
were Tories and Whigs all over the country ; 
but the great mass of the people w^ere Whigs. 




CHAPTER XXIV. 

LEXINGTON, CONCORD AND BUNKER HILL. 

It seemed a very serious thing to rebel against 
the King of England. There were many pale 
faces and anxious hearts as the people of Boston 
talked together about what they should do. 
Sometimes they met in dark cellars among the 
cobwebs, with a lantern hidden in a cask; for 
there were Tory spies, and the British soldiers 
were posted on all the corners of the streets to 
prevent the people from plotting together. 

At length an Assembly met and voted to raise 
troops to defend the liberty of Massachu- 
setts. Old soldiers, who had learned military 
tactics in the French and Indian wars, drilled 
squads of men in out-of-the-way places. A part 
of these were called Minute-men, who were 
always to be ready with their muskets. Indeed, 
life near the Indians for so many 3'ears had made 
Minute-men of most of the colonists. Ammu- 
nition was concealed in cart-loads of old rubbish 
and carried to Concord, sixteen miles away. 

It was agreed that if a large body of British 
soldiers beo^an to march out of Boston a lantern 



148 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY, 



should be hung in the belfry of the old North 
Church, and the towns would rally to an 
attack. 

At midnight on the eighteenth of April, 1775, 
the watchers on the other side of the Charles 
river saw a light blazing high up in the steeple. 
Messengers crossed from 
Boston in boats to give the 
alarm. One of them was 
our old friend, Paul Revere, 
who mounted his horse and 
rode through all the sleeping 
towns, to tell them that eight 
hundred British soldiers were 
on the way to Concord, 
Farmers and men of all 
classes hurried with their 
muskets to defend their 
countr}^ and their homes. 
At Lexington Green, the colonists were de- 
feated, but at Concord the British retreated after 
a sharp skirmish, and before they reached Boston 
they had lost over two hundred men. 

The Americans had made such a brave stand 
against the enemy that there was great enthu- 
siasm all over the country. 

General Gage reported to Parliament that the 




OLD NORTH CHURCH, 
BOSTON. 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN COYS. 



149 



Americans were not the "rabble" he had 
thought, and that the conquest of the country 
would not be very easy. 

Our old friend, John Stark, of New Hamp- 
shire, and Israel Putnam, of Connecticut, with his 
leather w^aistcoat on, and heroes from the French 
and Indian wars all through the colonies, left their 
plows and traps and fishing boats and hurried to 
Boston to " drive the British into the sea." 

When the British generals, Howe, Burgoyne, 
and Clinton, sailed into the harbor, they found 
Boston surrounded by twenty thousand Conti- 
nental soldiers. 

In the meanwhile, Ethan Allen, of Vermont, 
with his " Green Mountain Boys," had captured 
Ticonderogaand Crown Point, with vast military 
stores. The Americans now fortified Bunker 
Hill, which overlooked Charlestown Neck. But 
Breed's Hill being nearer Boston they threw up 
breastworks at that point. As they worked all 
night, they could hear the British sentinels call 
out, "All's well." 

As soon as it was light, the British batteries 
opened fire on the earthworks, but the Ameri- 
cans worked with shot and shell flying around 
them until the fortifications were finished. 

At noon, three thousand British veterans 



I50 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



landed on the peninsula of Charlestown, burned 
the town and advanced toward the hill. They 
were driven back twice with great loss, but at 
the third advance of the British the Americans 
could hold their position no longer, because 
their ammunition had given out, and they re- 
treated in order. 

But they had made such a brave stand that 
the seventeenth of June, 1775, when the battle of 
Bunker Hill was fought, is one of the proudest 
days in American History. 

Three days after the battle of Bunker Hill, 
George Washington received his commission as 
commander-in-chief of the American armies. 
On the third of July, Gen- 
eral Washington and his staff 
rode past his troops in re- 
view. General Washington 
was tall and commanding in 
appearance, and, like all Vir- 
ginians, he was a splendid 
rider. His manner was mod- 
est, but elegant. He seemed 
worthy to be the military hero of America. 
The troops he reviewed were awkward and 
ragged and poorly equipped, but they were 
patriotic and brave. Washington, with head- 




GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



THE SIEGE OF BOSTON. 



151 



quarters at Cambridge, soon set them to work 
making earthworks about the city of Boston. 

Meanwhile, the British in Boston were enjoy- 
ing themselves. The old South Meeting-house 
was turned into a riding school for the British 
dragoons, and Faneuil Hall was made a theater. 

General Burgoyne wrote a comic play called 
" The Siege of Boston," and one night, while it 
was being played, just as a ridiculous " Washing- 
ton," with a big wig and 
a rusty old sword came 
on the stage, an officer 
rushed in on the scene, 
calling out that the 
Americans were at- 
tacking Bunker Hill 
again. Everybody -^Wm 
laughed, at first; for 
they thought it was a 
part of the play; but 
soon the booming of guns was heard, and, sure- 
enough, it was the Americans firing their cannon. 

Washington threw up earthworks about the 
city until the British retreated from Boston. 
Meanwhile the Continental Congress was in 
session at Philadelphia, trying to raise money to 
carry on the war. 




FANEUIL HAI^I,. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

George III. had a hard time to persuade the 
English to fight against their American cousins. 

Wilham Pitt and Edmund Burke, the great 
EngHsh orators, had said that the war was unjust, 
and the most of the people thought that it was 
wrong, too. So Parliament hired troops from 
Germany, called Hessians ; and a great fleet of 
English veterans and Hessian soldiers sailed to 
America to quiet the rebels. 

With such an army before their eyes the king 
thought the Americans would be frightened. 

At first the British generals wrote General 
Washington a letter, trying to come to terms 
with him. They addressed the letter to George 
Washington, Esquire ; but Washington would 
not treat with them unless they called him com- 
mander-in-chief of the American armies. 

The generals would not acknowledge his rank ; 
for they thought that only the king had the right 
to make him commander-in-chief. 

The people became very angry because Eng- 
land had hired foreign troops to fight her own 
colonies. 



152 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 



153 




LIBERTY BELL 



Congress declared they owed no loyalty to 

such a country, and on the fourth of July, 1776, 
adopted the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. The colonies thus 
became an independent nation, 
under the name of The United 
States of America. 

It had been agreed that as soon 
as the Declaration of Independ- 
ence was adopted, the bell at the 

State House should be rung. It was a great day 

for the old bell-ringer's boy, who stood listening 

at the hall door for the signal. 
How he ran up the steps and shouted: "Ring, 

ring, ring, grandfather; it is done!" Out rang the 

joyful sounds, a little 

jerky, perhaps, for it 

was almost more than 

the old bell-ringer 

could bear; indeed, 

with all the rejoicing, ^ -^"ffTii^Li"-'' '^ 

there were m a n y TI|||||[T||f||jp| 

heavy hearts. The "^^"~ -~ """ ■7-^' 

Americans had been 

1 ^ 1 . „ THE STATE HOUSE IN 1775. 

used to a king all 

their lives. They had been taught to fear him 

and his soldiers. They knew England could 




A\* 



154 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




ORIGIN AIv FLAG. 



send troops outnumbering them two to one; 
and some feared that perhaps they would take 
their homes away from them, and separate 
fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers, 
as they had done only a few 
years before with the French 
Acadians. 

"We must all unite. We must 
all hang together," said John 
Hancock, of Massachusetts. 

"Yes," replied Benjamin 
Franklin, "we must hang to- 
gether, or we shall hang separately"; and, 
although everybody laughed when he said it, 
they knew there was a good ^^ 
deal of truth in what Frank- 
lin said. 

Now that the colonies were 
declaredTheUnited States of 
America, they wanted a flag 
of their own — they did not 
want to use the British flag 
any more. Congress voted 
that the flag of the thirteen states should have 
thirteen alternate red and white stripes with 
thirteen stars on a blue field. This was the same 
flag that waves to-day over all the States; except 




THE PRESENT KI.AG. 



FRANKLIN IN FRANCE. 1 55 

that a new star has been added for every new 
state, until now there are forty-five stars instead of 
thirteen; but the thirteen bars remain to remind us 
of the time when thirteen brave but feeble little 
colonies declared for human liberty. In the North 
some Tories persuaded the Iroquois Indians to 
join the British army, and they were very cruel. 

In the South the British tried to stir up the 
negroes in rebellion against their masters. There 
were many Tories in the South ; but there were 
many patriots, too — so many that they drove 
the British fleet away from Charleston Harbor. 
Sometimes the British, sometimes 
the Americans were victorious. 

In the meantime, Benjamin 
Franklin was in Paris trying to 
win over the young king Louis 
XVI. to the cause of America. 

-rr ^ J T7 BEN. FRANKLIN. 

r ranee wanted revenge on bng- 
land for her own defeat in America. But there 
seemed so little hope that the new Republic could 
stand out against the Mother Country that 
France was afraid to take up arms for the colonies. 

It was now that the genius of Franklin shone 
forth. This great man had struggled through pov- 
erty and abuse and misfortunes until he had be- 
come one of the most learned men in the world. 




156 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

A son of a candle-maker, he had followed his 
father's trade until he was old enough to help 
his brother in a printing-office. He loved books 
and always read the best books he could find. 
Once he was in the great city of London without 
friends and without money ; but he soon got 
work as a printer. He found a friend in a man 
who kept a second-hand bookstore and here he 
read and studied French and German every 
moment that he could spare from his work. 
After Franklin returned to America he bought 
a printing-press of his own and published a 
cheap little almanac, called " Poor Richard's 
Almanac." It was full of wise sayings, and 
almost everybody bought it. 

He started a public library in Philadelphia, 
the first one in America. This helped the people 
who could not buy books, to read them. 

Franklin was in the P^rench and Indian War, 
and he was always found in the front. He in- 
vented the lightning-rod and many other curious 
and useful things of which the world had never 
heard before. 

When the trouble about the taxes arose with 
England, Franklin was sent to London to try to 
arrange matters. 

He arrived in London in 1757, not this time as 



FRANKLIN IN ENGLAND. 1 57 

a poor printer's boy, but as a messenger from 
subjects loyal to their King. He stayed in Eng- 
land five years and then returned home. But 
two years later he was again sent back to Eng- 
land as an agent for the colonies. He appeared 
before Parliament and urged that the American 
colonies might have a representative in their 
body. He told Parliament how unjust the taxes 
on the colonies seemed, and even said that before 
the old clothes of the people were worn out, they 
might have new ones of their own making. 

Franklin's talk against the taxes aided greatly 
toward the repeal of the Stamp Act. But the 
next year Parliament put a tax on tea. As 
Franklin would not consent for the colonies to 
give up their liberties, peace did not come from 
his visits to England. 

Then he became a member of Congress and 
helped write the Declaration of Independence. 

When the Americans saw that England was 
sending over so many great armies they thought 
it might be that France would help In the war 
against her old enemy; so, because Franklin had 
studied French and was such a polished gentle- 
man, Congress sent him to France to seek aid. 
When Franklin was presented to King Louis, 
he wore a plain black suit of clothes with simple 



158 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

white frills. He would not wear gold lace and 
fine jewels like the rest of the Court. This pleased 
the queen, Marie Antoinette, very much. She 
called him a " philosopher," and did all she could 
to persuade the king to help the American 
cause. At last the news came to Franklin of Bur- 
goyne's surrender. Without aid from abroad a 
powerful British army had been humbled ; with 
aid, what might not the Americans do ? 

The French king now promised men and money 
and ships to aid in the war. At that very time 
General Washington was sitting 
before his camp-fire at Valley 
Forge, where the army had 
winter quarters. He had been 
badly defeated at Brandywine ; 
a thousand soldiers lay dead on 
the battle-field and the French 
patriot, Lafayette, was badly 
wounded. Many had deserted ; hundreds of 
the men were without shoes and they marched 
over the frozen ground with bloody feet. Hunger 
and cold and disease hung about the camp,and the 
great commander grew sick at heart as he beheld 
it all. He did not know that France had promised 
aid, nor that the English people had forced the 
king and Parliament to abolish the tax on tea. 




CHAPTER XXVI. 

BATTLES ON LAND AND SEA. 

After the British people had forced the king 
to agree to abolish the tax on the colonies, com- 
missioners were sent to Congress with promises 
to grant the colonies the privileges which they 
claimed if they would lay down their arms. 

Congress replied that it was too late to treat 
with the Americans as subjects of Great Britain; 
that America was now an independent govern- 
ment called the United States of America, and 
that unless Parliament would recognize her in- 
dependence, the war must go on. 

So the cruel war went on. It would take too 
long to tell in this book all about the battles of 
the Revolution. In the North, there were brave 
deeds by young patriots who risked their lives 
for their country. " There are the Red-coats," 
cried John Stark, just before the brilliant victory 
at Bennington. " Before night we must conquer 
them or Mollie Stark is a widow." 

In the South, there was the same self-sacrifice. 
Young Andrew Jackson and Francis Marion, the 
'■ Swamp Fox," with other patriots from North 



l6o THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Carolina, attacked John Bull like an army of 
angry wasps and stung him with many a lance. 
From the swamps and forests they fretted the 
British army to madness. 

England boasted that she was mistress of the 
seas; but American cruisers captured twenty-six 
prizes, worth millions of dollars. 

The most noted commander in the American 
navy was a short, thick little fellow named Paul 
Jones. He was born in Scotland and went to 
sea when only twelve years old. He became a 
skillful sailor and was a mate on a slave ship at 
one time. He saw the poor black men caught 
by hundreds in Africa and driven on board ship 
where they were packed, like so many cattle, in 
the hold. He saw them lashed by the captain to 
keep them quiet. He saw them thrown over- 
board by the dozens when they died on the voy- 
age to America. The boy left the slave trade in 
disgust. On his way back to England, both the 
captain and the mate of the ship died and Paul 
brought the vessel into port so skilfully that he 
was made captain. He settled in Virginia, at 
last, and took up arms against England. 

Paul Jones was soon made commodore of the 
little American navy. Once he sailed into a 
Dutch port with British ships, after one of the 




PAUL JONES. l6l 

most terrible naval battles in history. He was 
received in France with great honor after this 
victory and presented with a 
gold-hilted sword. Congress had 
a gold medal struck for him. 
It was a grand occasion for 
Paul Jones when Benjamin '^^^ 
Franklin took him to Court ^vfi&i, 
and presented him to Louis XVI. 

11 1 • r 1 T\ /r • A PAUL JONES. 

and the beautiful Mane An- 
toinette. John Copley and Benjamin West, the 
American painters, were also at Court that same 
evening, and every one made much over the boy 
sailor. " I hear," said the king, "that the British 
captain whom you defeated has been made a 
baronet for the defense of his ship." 

" If I meet him again, your Majesty," answered 
Paul, " I will make him a lord." This reply 
pleased the king greatly and he declared that if 
America had many such brave young men, Eng- 
land could never conquer her. 

But in the midst of all this honored patriotism 
there is one very sad story to tell. 

Benedict Arnold was a gallant and brave 
young man who had done many heroic deeds. 
He was a trusted friend of Washington. He had 
been promoted to the rank of major-general for 



l62 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




BENEDICT ARNOI^D. 



his braver}^; but he became a traitor to his 
country, and blotted out his name from the roll 
of honor in American history. 
Arnold had married the beau- 
tiful daughter of a rich Tory, and 
lived in great style in the old 
mansion of William Penn, in 
Philadelphia. As commandant 
of the troops stationed in the 
city, he became proud and despotic, and began 
to take money from the military funds which did 
not belong to him. For his offenses he was tried 
in court and convicted, and was reprimanded by 
General Washington, by order of the court. 

Arnold seemed to forget his disgrace. He ob- 
tained command at West Point on the Hudson 
river, w-hich ^.i,.,, 

was one of 
the most im- 
portant forts 
in America. 
But all this 
time he had 
planned to 
secure the 
fort and surrender it for money. He intended 
to sell his country to England. Think of it: 




WEST POINT. 



THE BRITISH IN A TRAP. 1 63 

when thousands were laying down their Hves 
to save the country, this one man, handsome 
and well born and loved by many people, was 
selling his country for money. 

Major Andre, who was adjutant-general of the 
British army, was caught by some farmers, and 
a letter was found in his boot which told just 
what a traitor Benedict Arnold was. Major 
Andre was hanged as a spy. Benedict Arnold 
escaped to a British ship and fought for a time 
against his own country in the pay of England. 
But even the English despised the traitor, and 
the British soldiers spoke of him with contempt. 

Through all these long years of blood and 
famine and treason, George Washington re- 
mained the calm, level-headed commander. He 
planned retreats and attacks with equal skill, and 
at last the British armies were caught, as it were, 
in a net in Virginia, where General Cornwallis 
had taken his position at Yorktown, on the 
south bank of the York river. French ships in 
Chesapeake Bay shut him off from the British 
fleet. General Lafayette advanced with his 
army and encamped within eight miles of York- 
town. Washington in a swift march from the 
Hudson met Lafayette, and their united armies 
hemmed in the British by land. 



164 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

On October nineteenth, 17S1, Cornwallis and 
his British and Hessian troops laid down their 
arms, gave up their flags and became prisoners 
of war. 

Four days afterwards a courier arrived in 
Philadelphia with a dispatch from Washington 
to Congress, telling of the final victory at York- 
town. Men wept and shouted for joy, and many 
spent the afternoon in the Dutch church with 
thanksgiving. The French had aided nobly in 
the victory, and when the news reached Paris, the 
whole city was illuminated. Franklin was there, 
and the ladies of the court loaded him with com- 
pliments and flowers. 

A final treaty between the two hostile nations 
was made in 1783. Great Britain recognized the 
independence of the United States, and surren- 
dered all the territory east of the Mississippi, 
^, .^ except Florida and 

I " Louisiana territory, 

m^ &;=y'...S^' ^ ' which belonged to 

'-1 



'^'^^;^y^^%:S^K: Spain. Great Britain 

" ' ' ^f f ?&^ kept Canada, and the 

^:>(*ijH»9# ■^— ^ ■' - -'-"ir'-'*%^ control of the St. 

L a w r e n c e r i v e r . 

MOUNT VERNON. , r» •^- 1 

1 he British army 
in America sailed away for England on the 



WASHINGTON RETIRES TO MOUNT VERNON. 



165 



twenty-fifth of November. Nine da^^s afterward, 
General Washington assembled his of^cers and 
bade them farewell. He then returned to his 
farm at Mount Vernon, on the Potomac, and 
seemed to forget that he had been the comman- 




l66 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

der-in-chief of the American armies; but the 
people did not forget the great chieftain, and we 
shall soon see that he had many things yet to do 
for his country. 

It was a foggy day in London on the fifth of 
December, when the king, George III., came 
into the House of Lords to announce the inde- 
pendence of the United States. He was in royal 
robes and sat on his throne, but he felt that 
his people were stronger than he. They had 
forced him to acknowledge the independence of 
the United States, and had refused to vote any 
more money for the war. His voice trembled as 
he read from his scroll the loss of his colonies; 
but in the gallery high over his head sat Copley 
and West and some American ladies who were 
shedding tears for very joy. 

The United States was now a separate gov- 
ernment; but since the war was over, there was 
no common cause to hold the States together. 
Each State had its own affairs to look after. 
The Union seemed ready to fall to pieces. 

But in 1787, some of the wisest men from the 
different States met in a convention at Phila- 
delphia to provide for a more permanent Union. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

A PERMANENT UNION FORMED. 

The United States was now one nation. It had 
taken a long time to agree to a permanent Union. 
There were big states like Pennsylvania and little 
States like Rhode Island, and they were jealous 
of one another. In the convention at Philadel- 
phia they quarreled so badly that Benjamin 
Franklin rose and moved that prayer be offered 
every morning. That must have helped them to 
agree. At any rate, they soon after had the Con- 
stitution of the United States written and adopted. 

Some day you will read the Constitution, and 
you will find it a wonderful set of laws to govern 
so many States. It provided for a body of dele- 
gates from all the States, called Congress, who 
should make the laws, and for a president who 
should see that the laws were executed, and for 
judges who should decide whether the laws made 
by Congress and by the States agreed with the 
Constitution. 

The people now had two things to celebrate — 
the Declaration of Independence and the adop- 
tion of the Constitution of the United States, 

167 



l68 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

In 1/88, Philadelphia had the first great Fourth 
of July celebration. There was a procession a 
mile and a half long. Few had ever seen a 
parade except with regiments of soldiers in bright 
armor witii swords shining and cannons booming, 
and sometimes with prisoners marching behind 
in chains. But this very first procession in the 
United States showed that the new nation was 
one of peace and not of war. It was a triumphal 
march of tradespeople. There were great floats 
drawn by many horses, showing the different 
trades. One float, finer than all the rest, repre- 
sented the thirteen United States. There were 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl- 
vania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Car- 
olina, South Carolina, and Georgia. 

The thirteen States were thirteen pillars which 
supported the dome of a temple; but three of the 
pillars were unfinished, because three of the 
States had not yet adopted the Constitution. 

At night, in most of the cities, there were torch- 
light processions, sky-rockets were fired off, and 
all the bells were kept jingling till midnight. 

Great Britain did not like to see this good feel- 
ing. Parliament hoped the colonies would fight 
one another, so they would not become a strong 



THE FIRST PRESIDENT. 169 

nation. It is said that men were hired to come 
from England to make trouble between the States. 

Then Spain wanted the colonies of the South 
to join with Florida and make one government. 
So you see, it was very necessary that all should 
stand together, or pretty soon there would not 
be any United States. 

Of course after Congress was elected, the very 
first thing to do was to elect a president. There 
were many good men to choose from who were 
both learned and brave; but almost everyone said 
George Washington should be elected; and, sure 
enough, he was. 

New York was made the capital city. As Gen- 
eral Washington traveled from his home at Mt. 
Vernon to New York, a long procession of peo- 
ple went with him. The governors of the States 
and the mayors of the towns met him in great 
honor; arches were built at the entrance of cities, 
and over bridges; and girls dressed in white 
strewed flowers along his path. 

On the thirtieth day of April, 1789, a great 
crowd of people stood in front of Federal Hall 
in New York to see the president take the oath 
of office, and when that was over, they shouted, 
"Long live George Washington, President of the 
United States!" Cannons boomed, and every- 



lyo 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




body felt that the United States was really a 
government. 

There was no other government like it in the 
world. Many said that Washington would soon 

make himself king, 
and then the United 
States would be just 
like any of the gov- 
ernments in Europe. 
Others said that a 
government where 
the people had all 
the say about affairs 
would fall to pieces, 
and that there would 
soon be a dozen small nations instead of one 
great nation. 

Then there were different ideas about how a 
president should live. In New York and the 
larger cities, there were some who kept the coat- 
of-arms of their ancestors hanging in their halls 
and painted on their carriages. They thought 
Washington should live like a king in splendor, 
and that the common people ought not to speak 
with him. Others thought that the house of the 
president should not be any larger nor his coach 
any finer than any other person's. 



FEDERAL HALL, 1' 



COSTUMES OF THE TIME. 



171 



Washington himself beheved that the presi- 
dent should live in a way to be respected by the 
courts of Europe. He wanted the United States 
to be thought as good as any other nation in the 
world. So he lived in fine style. He was driven in 
a handsome coach drawn by six horses with two 




WASHINGTON S COACH. 



footmen behind, in scarlet and white livery. His 
birthday was celebrated all over the country like 
that of a king, just as we celebrate it to-day. He 
held receptions at his house with men in high 
office to assist him. He wore black velvet small- 
clothes, a cutaway coat, with pearl-colored vest, 
long white silk-stockings, and silver knee-buckles 
and shoe-buckles. His hair was powdered white 
and gathered into a silk bag and tied with a bow 
behind. He did not shake hands, but held a 
three-cornered hat in his hand and bowed to 
each guest, speaking a kind word to everybody. 
His wife, Martha Washington, had her even- 
ing receptions, where the guests were waited on 
by colored servants. When, in 1791, Philadel- 



172 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

phia was made the capital, Washington contin- 
ued in that city his hospitable way of living, and 
it was said in Europe that the first president of 
the new Republic would do honor to a throne. 

At this time, ladies wore silk and taffeta gowns 
and high-heeled shoes. They dressed their hair 
very high and put black patches on their faces to 
improve their beauty. Gentlemen carried snuff 
boxes and were very polite. They wore em- 
broidered satin vests, with lace at the neck and 
on the broad cuffs. They wore powdered wigs; 
even little boys wore wigs and cocked hats like 
their fathers. But, of course, there were many 
poor boys who could not afford to dress so fine 
as that. Indeed, there were many poor people 
after the war. While the patriots had been fight- 
ing for liberty, the farms in the North had lain 
idle, and the mills were closed; and the cotton, 
and tobacco, and rice fields of the South were not 
profitable. After the war, the paper money of 
the States had little value, and trade could not 
revive. There was an immense war debt. 

Through the efforts of Alexander Hamilton, 
of New York, the government promised to pay 
the debts of the war. A tax was put on imported 
goods, and everybody who bought foreign wares 
helped to pay off the war debts. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 
Washington's administration. 

President Washington lived in great state at 
the Presidential Mansion; but fine clothes and 
fine coaches were not so important to him as were 
a prosperous and happy people. 

With the wise men he had chosen to help him, 
called the " Cabinet," President Washington 
made treaties of peace and treaties of commerce 
with the nations of Europe. He brought to 
terms the pirates off the coast of Africa, who 
were robbing the ships of the American mer- 
chants. He ruled so wisely and so well that 
Europe said the United States had made a good 
beginning; but it was still thought that a gov- 
ernment by the people could not last long. 

About that time, a ship sailed to China to get 
a cargo of tea. Tea from English merchants 
tasted a little bitter since the Boston tea-party, 
and the American merchants thought they 
would try to get it themselves. No one knew 
much about China. Only Dutch merchants were 
allowed to get tea and silks at her ports,and they 
had never been beyond the great warehouses 

173 



174 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

close by the sea. Even to the wisest men, China 
seemed like a fairy-land, and there were many 
wild stories going about of the people shut in by 
the great Chinese wall. 

Some said all their houses were of marble and 
their temples and palaces were adorned with 
precious stones; that the market-places were 
filled with silks and cloth-of-gold, and carved 
mother-of-pearl and ivory; and that the king's 
palace was of pure gold, and that he ate from 
plates and dishes of gold. When the American 
merchant returned from his long voyage, he did 
not have any such wonderful things as these to 
tell. But he said that he had been only on the 
coast, and that the Chinese merchants had yellow 
skins and crooked eyes and wore their hair in 
a " pig tail." 

He said that the Chinese had never heard of 
the little republic of the United States, and that 
when they saw the map of America they were 
delighted to find such a fine market for their tea. 
It was in this way that our trade with China 
began. 

While ships were pushing out to widen the com- 
merce of the republic, the people were beginning 
to look beyond the mountains to the new lands 
lying west. The country north of the Ohio river 



TROUBLE WITH THE INDIANS. 



175 



now belonged to the United States, and was called 
the Northwest Territory. According to the laws 
made for this territory, every one should have 
freedom in his religion; there should be free 
schools, and there should not be any slaves. 

These are the same laws we now have all over 
the United States; but at the time Washington 
was president, none of the States had so much 
liberty. Some still had their old laws obliging 
the citizens to belong to a certain church, if they 
were allowed to vote. Very few States had free 
schools; and there might be slaves in all the States. 

People moved west in great numbers, because 
they liked the laws of the new territory, and 
because the land was cheap. But the Indians 
soon began to fear they would 
lose their hunting grounds; and 
they attacked the settlers and 
burned many little towns. 

General St. Clair, the governor 
of the Northwest Territory, 
marched against the Indians, but ^kneral anthonv 
his army was defeated. Then wayne. 

General Anthony Wayne marched against them, 
and conquered them. After this victory, a treaty 
of peace was made with the Indians, by which 
they surrendered all claims to the land north of 




176 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the Ohio as far west as the Wabash river. So 
the great Northwest Territory was opened up 
for a prosperous settlement. 

Then there was an exchange of white and 
Indian captives. Wives and husbands, after 
years of separation, were reunited, and children 
who had grown up among the savages and did 
not understand a word of English, were restored 
to their parents. 

About this time, three more States were added 
to the thirteen. The first one was Vermont, which 
had been a part of New York. It was called Ver- 
mont on account of its beautiful mountains which 
are always green with hemlock, spruce, and fir 
trees. The "Green Mountain Boys," with Ethan 
Allen as their leader, had been a great help 
during the Revolution; and Vermont was gladly 
welcomed as the fourteenth State. 

Then Kentucky, which had been a part of 
Virginia, came into the Union. Kentucky, too, 
had played a great part in the struggle against 
England. It had been the old " dark and bloody 
ground" of the Indians. In it were many mys- 
terious caves, and forests of oak trees, and long 
stretches of blue grass that were fine for grazing. 

Daniel Boone explored the State when it was 
still full of buffalo and deer. When a boy, Boone 



DANIEL BOONE. 



177 




had many adventures in the wild mountains of 
North CaroHna. Once he was hunting deer at 
night by torch-light; he saw a 
pair of eyes shining in the dark, 
and was just ready to shoot 
when he found that the eyes be- 
longed to a little neighbor girl 
instead of to a deer. Afterwards, 
this little girl became Boone's 
wife. They moved into the wilderness of Ken- 
tucky, and lived in a log fort called Boones- 
borough. 

Boone had many narrow escapes from the 
Indians. Once when they were on his track, he 
swung far out into the air by a long wild grape- 
vine and dropped on the ground, so far away, 
that the Indians could not follow his tracks. He 
would often wade down streams to hide his trail, 
and knew the tricks of the Indians so well that 
it was difficult for them to catch him. But sev- 
eral times he was taken prisoner. Once the 
warriors shaved off his hair except the scalp lock, 
and painted his face and dressed him up like an 
Indian, and an old Indian squaw adopted him; 
but after a long while the brave hunter escaped. 
His daughters were once taken prisoners, too; but 
they tore off pieces from their dresses and scat- 



178 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

tered them along the path, and broke off twigs 
from the trees along the Indian trail, so that 
their father followed and rescued them. 

After Kentucky became a State, Boone threw 
his gun over his shoulder and went off beyond 
the Mississippi to find better hunting-grounds. 

The next State to come into the Union during 
the administration of President Washington was 
Tennessee. It was a fine country beyond the 
foot-hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where 
green prairies sloped gently down to the Missis- 
sippi and Tennessee rivers. The settlers were 
mostly from North Carolina. 

When young Andrew Jackson came to Ten- 
nessee in 1788, to fight the Indians and start life 
as a lawyer, there were only eighty cabins in 
Nashville. Most of the cabins had but one room 
each, and people generally slept on the floor. 
They sometimes woke to find snakes as bed- 
fellows. They were also much troubled by the 
Indians. 

The early settlers had no money, and hence 
they made a law that peltries should pass as 
money. The people in the eastern States made 
a great deal of sport about the strange money in 
Tennessee. They forgot that just the same kind 
of fur money had been used by the first settlers 



WASHINGTON'S BURIAL PLACE. 1 79 

of New England. After Tennessee came into 
the Union, the Indians called Washington the 
"Father of Sixteen Fires," because they said 
there were now sixteen tribes. 

Washington served four years as president 
and then was re-elected, without a vote against 
him, for another four years. W^hen the people 
asked him to serve still another four years, he 
firmly refused and went back to his farm at 
Mount Vernon. Two years later, Washington 
died. The whole country mourned his loss 
deeply. Congress adopted a series of resolu- 
tions, in one of which the words of General 
Henry Lee were used which called Washington 
the "First in peace, first in war, and first in the 
hearts of his countrymen." 

He was buried at Mount Vernon on the Po- 
tomac. His old home is kept just as he left it, 
and is guarded as a sacred trust by the loyal 
Mount Vernon Association. 




JOHN ADAMS. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 

John Adams was elected the second President 
of the United States. He had been to the courts 
of Great Britain, France and 
Holland and, like Benjamin 
Franklin, he had been a great 
favorite with the kings. Fie had 
helped write the Declaration of 
Independence and had been the 
Vice-President eight years. 
Although he was a good man, Adams had some 
enemies. One of his most bitter enemies was 
John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia, who 
boasted that the Indian princess 
Pocahontas was one of his ances- 
tors, and w^io was one of the most 
brilliant orators of the South. The 
enmity came about in this way: 
When John Randolph was only a 
boy in school at Columbia College, 
New York, he had stood with his brother in 
Federal Hall, to see John Adams take the oath 
as Vice-President. 

180 




JOHN RANDOLPH. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. l8l 

As he and his brother went out of the building, 
the coachman spurned Randolph's brother for 
coming too near the new Vice-President's elegant 
carriage. From that moment John Randolph 
was a bitter enemy of the Adamses, and after- 
ward used his influence against them in Congress. 

There were some who opposed the fine living 
of President Washington and President Adams. 
Among them was Thomas Jeffer- 
son, who was elected the third 
President. Jefferson had been 
much in Europe, and was for a 
time Minister to France. But 
in his life abroad, Jefferson had 
learned to despise the parade 

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

of the Royal Courts. When he 
was to be inaugurated in Washington City, which 
was now the capital of the United States, it is 
said that he would not go in a coach-and-six, 
as Washington and Adams had done. He rode 
on horseback and hitched his horse to a fence, 
like any plain farmer. When President Jefferson 
held his receptions, he kept open house for every- 
body, and would shake hands with rich and poor 
alike. Among the first acts of President Jefferson 
was to purchase Louisiana from the French, who 
had acquired that territory from Spain. Thus 




l82 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

New Orleans and a great territory west of the 
Mississippi became a part of the United States. 

At first the towns of New Orleans and St. 
Louis, where nearly all the inhabitants were 
French or Spanish, did not like this change 
in their government. The people there did not 
speak the English language, and did not under- 
stand the laws of the United States; but after 
a while these people became just as loyal to their 
president as they had been to their kings. 

Nobody in the United States knew anything 
about this vast new territory, drained by the 
Missouri, Arkansas, and Red rivers, and so Presi- 
dent Jefferson was determined to have the 
country explored. He looked about him for 
brave men who would be willing to venture into 
the unknown wilderness, and chose two young 
Virginians, Captain Meriwether Lewis and 
William Clarke. 

With a small company of men, they paddled 
their boats down the Ohio and across the Missis- 
sippi to St. Louis. From thence they passed up 
the Missouri river to the mouth of the Platte. 
Here on the left bank, they held a great council 
with some Indians, and named the spot Council 
Bluffs. They spent the winter among the Indians, 
and then paddled on up the Missouri. Some- 



LEWIS AND CLARKE EXPEDITION. 1 83 

times, they dragged their boats through the 
shallows and sometimes they carried them round 
the rapids. Then on past the Yellowstone they 
went, until they saw the Rocky Mountains with 
their snowy tops lifted to the clouds. 

They passed the Falls of the Missouri, where 
the river rushes down with a roar and leaps over 
steep rocks, and dashes its white spray high up 
into the air. It was a wonderful sight. 

When the mountains were reached, Captain 
Lewis set out alone to find guides to the country 
beyond. In his search for an Indian village he 
reached the highest source of the mighty Mis- 
souri river, and was much surprised to find that 
it was only a little brook playing down the moun- 
tain side. 

With Indian guides our heroes passed the 
mountains; and, ragged and half-starved, they 
built boats and paddled down the Lewis river, 
and then past the Clarke into the broad waters 
of the Columbia. 

At last, they heard the roar of the breakers 
where the waters of the Pacific beat up against 
the shores of America; and soon they saw the 
wide ocean stretched out before them as Balboa 
had seen it farther south almost three hundred 
years before. But this time it was the stars and 



184 THE STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

stripes that waved on the shore, instead of the 
banner of Spain. After their return, Lewis and 
Clarke gave President Jefferson a book in which 
was written all that they had learned about the 
animals and plants and minerals in this western 
country, and all that they had found out about 
the Indians and their villages and their ways of 
living. The President was very much pleased 
with the success of the Lewis and Clarke Expe- 
dition. 

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Z. M. Pike explored 

the Arkansas and the 
Red rivers, and climbed 
the peak which bears 
v /v. ,y ;• , his name and saw bison, 

AMERICAN BISON. coiiimonly called buf- 

falo, roaming in herds where now are some of 
the great States of the Union. 

The administration of Jefferson is noted for 
the growth of the territory north of the Ohio 
river. In the spring and fall, when the rivers 
were swollen, emigrants from the Northern States 
went down to Pittsburg by way of Lake Erie or 
by way of a mountain road through Pennsylva- 
nia. From Pittsburg, flatboats carried them 
down the Ohio river to their new homes. Emi- 
grants from the Southern States went up through 




LIFE ON THE FRONTIERS. 185 

Kentucky to the territory. They were gen- 
erally a poorer class of people than those 
from the North; for the slaves had kept them 
from getting work to do. Some colonies of 
well-to-do Quakers went from the Carolinas, 
because they did not like slavery, and wanted to 
live in a country where the laws did not allow 
slaves. Here, in home-spun clothes, a new 
people built their homes, who were some day 
to give presidents and vice-presidents and many 
other great men to their country. 

After the rude huts were built for their families, 
the pioneers next built a schoolhouse. There 
was always a great fireplace in the school- 
houses; seats were wooden slabs set up on 
wooden legs; a narrow shelf ran around the wall 
where the older scholars could write, and the 
sunlight came in through greased paper instead 
of glass. Close by the master hung a bunch of 
hickory switches, which were thought very useful 
in helping to learn the alphabet. 

Boys and girls went barefoot to school when 
the weather was not too cold; but those who 
were very proud would carry their shoes to the 
schoolhouse door and then put them on to wear 
till it was time to start home. 

Life in these western wilds was much the same 



1 86 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



as that among the early Puritans, but the laws 
were not so strict, and there was more merry- 
making. There were singing-schools and spell- 
ing-schools; there were husking-bees in the 
barns; there were log-raisings, where the men 
met together to build a log house for a neighbor; 
there were nutting parties, when 
early on frosty mornings the 
walnuts and butternuts were 
>'' gathered for the winter. 

Everybody was sure to find a 
welcome in these rude homes. It 
was the boast of the frontiersman 
that the "latch-string" of buck- 
skin always hung outside the 
door, and that any one who pulled the string 
might enter. 

After a while, "stores" were set 
community, and the bustle of 
trade crept in; and neat frame 
and brick houses took the place 
of log cabins. 

One State was soon cut out of 
this Northwest Territory, and 
called Ohio; the remainder was 
called the Indiana Territory, 
and William Henry Harrison was its governor. 




THE LATCH-STRING 



up in every 




WILLIAM HENRY 
HARRISON. 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 



187 




ROBERT FULTON. 



When he was 



It was toward the close of Jefferson's adminis- 
tration that Robert Fulton launched the first 
steamboat in America. From 
his earliest years Fulton was 
fond of inventing machines. He 
did not like books, but was 
always studying how to make 
sky-rockets and lead pencils and 
many other things for the amuse- 
ment of himself and his friends, 
only fourteen, he invented a crank to turn the 

paddles of his boat, wdiich 
was much easier than row- 
ing by hand. 

At last, he planned a 
steamboat. When it was 
finished he called the boat 
" Clermont," but the people 
called it " Fulton's Folly," and laughed about it as 
much as they now laugh about flying-machines. 
When the day came to launch the boat, a 
screw w^as wrong, and at first the vessel would 
not move. Then, when Fulton had fixed the 
screw, black columns puffed from the smoke- 
stack, the paddles threw spray in every direc- 
tion and off went the boat with great speed. 
It is said that as the " Clermont," with sparks 




THE CLERMONT. 



l88 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY, 

flying and steam hissing, passed the little sail- 
boats on the Hudson, many sailors hid themselves 
in fright. Steamboats were improved so fast 
after this, that in a few years steamers were 
crossing the ocean. But we should remember 
that Robert Fulton of Pennsylvania was the in- 
ventor of the first modern steamboat. 

At the close of his second term as President 
of the United States, Thomas Jefferson retired 

^•n>,l^''\ to his home in Monticello, 

Skf'^ ... 

^ Virginia, and was long 




known as the " Sage of 
Monticello." 
He said that when he died 
MONTICELLO. j^g wished to have written 

on his grave: " Here lies Thomas Jefferson, au- 
thor of the Declaration of Independence, of the 
Statute for religious freedom in the State of Vir- 
ginia, and Father of the University of Virginia." 
Soon the Indians again grew jealous of the 
advance of the white men, and a famous chief, 
Tecumseh, rallied his warriors about him to 
defend the hunting-grounds in Indiana Territory. 
His brother, the Prophet, was a medicine-man, 
who claimed to heal the sick by magic. He had 
only one eye. and when dressed in the garb of 
his craft was an object of fear to the Indians. 




THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 1 89 

This prophet, while Tecumseh was in the south 
getting his warriors together, persuaded the In- 
dians to commence war on tlie white settlers. 
General Harrison marched to 
the Prophet's town on the Tippe- 
canoe river, and went into camp. 
Just before daylight, the Indians 
attacked the army while it still 
slept. The soldiers soon rallied, 
put out the camp fires and fought 
in the dark. The Prophet stood 

, .,, , , , , THE PROPHET. 

on a hill near by and chanted a 
war song in a loud voice. He called to his war- 
riors that his charms would save them, that noth- 
ing would harm them, and they fought with 
terrible strength; but they were at last driven 
from the field with great loss, a little after day- 
light, on the seventh of November, iSii. 

When Tecumseh returned from the south, he 
found his people scattered, and he soon went to 
Canada to join the British, who were again mak- 
ing preparations for war against the United 
States. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Madison's administration. 
There was trouble for the Republic during the 
next few years. The trouble really began while 
Jefferson was President. 

George III. had reigned in England almost 
sixty years. He was very old, and many thought 
he was insane. 

Great Britain was now at war with France, and 
attacked all the ships which had commerce with 
that nation. British seamen claimed the right 
to search American vessels, to see whether British 
sailors were on board; sometimes a whole crew 
were taken off, and the vessel was left alone on 
the high sea. So an American merchant never 
knew when his wares might reach port. 

Parliament did not listen to any complaints 
sent by Congress; and it was plain 
that the trouble could only be set- 
tled by war. 

President Madison, who had suc- 
ceeded Jefferson, was not a mili- 
tary man and wanted peace. But 
JAMES MADISON. ^ party was led by three young 
orators, Clay, Webster, and Calhoun, who said 




HENRY CLAY. I9I 

there must be war before there could be any 
real peace. 

These three young orators became so famous 
hi American history that you would perhaps like 
to know something about them. 

Henry Clay was born on the frontier of Virginia, 
in a place called the "Slashes." His father died 
when he was four years old, and 
left him to the care of a mother 
who had little for him but love. 
He learned to read and to write 
in a log cabin. 

Barefooted and bareheaded, 
he often rode a sorry-looking 

-^ ° HENRY CLAY. 

horse to mill, with a sack of corn 
to be ground into meal. He clerked in a little 
dry-goods store in Richmond, Va.; but afterwards 
he found a place in the courts as a clerk. There 
was tittering among the other clerks as Clay 
took his seat at a desk. 

He was a lank and raw-boned lad. His clothes 
were home-made and ill-fitting; and his linen was 
so starched by his good mother and his hair was 
brushed back so sleek, that he looked stiff and 
awkward. 

It soon happened that Clay's companions 
found he could talk uncommonly well. His dili- 




192 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

gence at work, and his bright, intelHgent face at- 
tracted the attention of Chancellor Wythe, who 
selected Clay from all the other clerks to write 
for him. 

"The mill-boy of the Slashes," on account of 
his good character, his wit and pleasant manners, 
was soon introduced into the best society of 
Richmond, He studied law, and became the 
leader in a debating club. 

When he was ready to practice law, before he 
was of age, Henry Clay went to Lexington, 
Kentucky. Here he soon won fame as a public 
speaker, and was sent to Congress. 

Clay had a pleasing face, though he was not 
handsome; his voice was musical and his words 
were eloquent. He hated slavery, and defended 
slaves in the courts. He wanted better canals 
and better roads for the country, and wanted to 
encourage the manufacture of goods at home, so 
that the American people would not be obliged 
to buy so many things in Europe. 

John C. Calhoun is called South Carolina's 
greatest son. His early life was spent on a farm 
helping his mother make a living for the family. 
He did not read much, because he had few books; 
but he thought a great deal. Whenever he found 
any one who knew more than he did, Calhoun 



CALHOUN AND WEBSTER. 



193 




talked with him until he had learned all he 
could. \\ hen he was eighteen 3'ears old, he went 
to Yale College. Here he studied the great 
questions of the times and talked 
so well in debate that his class- 
mates said he would some day 
be President of the United 
States. He never became Presi- 
dent, but was Vice-President, and 
filled many offices of honor. J°^^' ^- calhoux. 
When Calhoun was in Congress from South 
Carolina he worked with Henry Clay and Daniel 
Webster to bring about the war with Great 
Britain; but on man}^ other questions these three 
great men did not agree at all. 

Daniel Webster's father, Ebenezer Webster, 
was one of the famous "Xew Hampshire Ran- 
gers," about whom we read in 
the French and Indian wars. 
Later on he helped Washington 
in the siege of Boston, and scaled 
the breastworks at Bennington 
with John Stark. After it was 
DAxiEL WEBSTER, igamcd that Benedict Arnold 
was a traitor, General Washington said, one day, 
to Captain Webster, " I know I can trust you, 
Webster." 




194 THE STORY OF OL'R COUNTRY. 

The great orator was always proud of his 
father's good name. 

Daniel was such a puny baljy that the neigh- 
bor women said he would not live. As he grew 
older, he was still frail, and was not put to work 
in the fields with his brother; so he roamed all 
day long in the woods. His companion was 
often an old British sailor, who had deserted his 
ship to enter the American army, and now lived 
a half vagabond life near the home of the 
Websters. 

It was this sailor's great delight to carry little 
Daniel out into the woods on his shoulders, and 
to row slowly up and down the river as he taught 
him how to catch the shining fish. They would 
lie together for hours on the mossy bank, while 
the old man told endless stories of adventures. 

As Daniel grew older and stronger he read 
every book he could find. It is odd that he failed 
in declamation when at his first school. In his 
own words: "There was one thing I could not do: 
I could not speak before the school." But later, 
in Dartmouth College, he became famous in de- 
bate. As a lawyer, Webster won great fame, and 
we find him taking part in all the debates in Con- 
gress, where he was sent by his native State, not 
long after he was graduated. 



OUR INFANT NAVY. 



^95 



While the old leaders in Congress wanted to 
jog on in the ruts, these three young orators 
aroused the people to the highest pitch of en- 
thusiasm for the defense of American rights. 

So war was declared with Great Britain, It is 
called the War of iSi2.and lasted over two years. 

The United States was not very well prepared 
for war. The Americans did not keep a large 
arm}' always ready to go to war as the nations of 
Europe do. There were onh* a few half-built 
forts along the coast from Maine to Mrginia. 
There were very few ships. But, with the bold- 
ness of a just cause, the little American fleet 
sailed out to meet the great British nav}-. Some 
said it was like the shepherd bo}' David going 
out to meet the giant Goliath. 

There were many battles out on the ocean and 
on the lakes of the north. 

Young Captain Lawrence, after some brilliant 
victories, fell in with a British 
frigate off the coast of Cape 
Ann. The Americans fought 
on deck until ever}- officer was 
either killed or wounded. As ; 
Lawrence himself was borne . J.'4' "^ ^ 

dying down the hatchway, he ^''"^ i-awrexce. 
cried out, "Don't give up the ship." The British 





196 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

sailors were already leaping on board the ship, 
but the last words of the gallant Lawrence 
became the motto of the war all over the country. 
Commodore Perry, of Rhode Island, named 
his flagship the "Lawrence," and on the flag was 
written, "Don't give up the ship." 
In a battle on Lake Erie, the 
"Lawrence" was soon a wreck; 
her masts were gone; her sailors 
were killed; but the brave Perry 
put on his uniform, seized the 

O. H PERRY. n 1 1 • \ ^ 

riag, and passed m an open boat, 
under full fire of the enemy, to another American 
ship. 

Under the folds of the waving banner, the 
battle raged until the whole British fleet on Lake 
Erie surrendered. 

In the smoke of the battle, Perry sent his 
famous dispatch to General Harrison: "We have 
met the enemy and they are ours." Other vic- 
tories followed until the American navy was 
mistress of the seas. 

Europe could hardly believe the report. The 
British newspapers expressed astonishment that 
a "handful of outlaws with a piece of striped 
bunting could disgrace the name of England." 

Meanwhile on land the war was raging. In 



ANDREW JACKSON. I97 

the North, the chief Tecumseh was killed, and 
the Indians deserted from the British; and the 
armies of General Harrison and General Scott 
were victorious. 

In the South, the city of Washington was 
captured by the British, who set fire to the presi- 
dent's mansion, called the White House, and to 
other public buildings. 

It is said that the priceless Declaration of In- 
dependence and the famous Stuart portrait of 
President Washington were saved by Mrs. Madi- 
son, the wife of the President. So great was the 
haste to remove the portrait 
that the frame was broken, and 
the canvas alone was carried to 
a place of safety. 

The last battle of the war was 
fought by Andrew Jackson at 
New Orleans. This fearless gen- 

, . , , . . - ANDREW JACKSON. 

eral, with his regiment from 
Tennessee, had been busy during the war putting 
down the Creek Indians, who had massacred 
many white settlers in Alabama. 

With two brave young fellows, Sam Houston 
and Davy Crockett, he led his men against the 
Indians, and in two battles put an end to the 
Indian war. 




198 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




Jackson had always hated the English. He was 
thirteen when the Revolutionary war broke out, 
and he bore to his grave a scar 
on the head made by a British 
officer, because he would not 
black this officer's boots. 

So he was very willing to fight 
the British at New Orleans. All 
night, his men built up breast- 
works of cotton bales. When 
the British tried to take these 
works by storm, their ranks 
were mowed down in hundreds by the bullets of 
Jackson's well-trained troops. At night, twenty- 
six hundred British veterans lay dead on the field. 
The American loss was about thirteen. 

This wonderful battle of New Orleans was the 
last in the war of 18 12, and was fought after a 
treaty of peace had been made between Great 
Britain and the United States. Neither army had 
yet heard of the treaty. 



DAVY CROCKETT. 




ji'fi piliiiir 



JACKSON'S MONUMENT. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

ERA OF GOOD FEELING. 

An "era of good feeling" followed the war of 
1S12, during the administration of President 
Monroe. 

Indian Territory was set aside for the Indians, 
and the Mobilian tribes sold their lands and 
moved there. 

Florida was bought from Spain, and most of 
the Spaniards emigrated to South America. At 
that time the countries of South 
America were trying to establish 
republics of their own; but Spain 
claimed the country, and it was 
feared that the nations of Europe 
might aid Spain to prevent this. 

In 1823, President Monroe de- 
clared that the United States 
would object to any attempt of European powers 
to interfere with the governments of any people 
on any part of this hemisphere. 

This declaration became famous as the " Mon- 
roe doctrine," and has been a great help to the 
republics of South America and Mexico. 




JAMES MOXROE. 



200 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 







BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 



In 1824, Marquis de Lafayette, now old and gray, 

came again to America. Alone he visited the 

tomb of Washington at 
Mount Vernon, and wept. 
With the aged Adams 
and Jefferson, he talked 
of the glory of America in 
the past, and of the still 
greater glories to come. 
He rode in a procession 
with two-hundred veter- 
ans of the Revolution to 
Breed's Hill, to lay the 
corner-stone of Bunker 

Hill monument, and listened with deep emotion 

to the eloquent oration 

pronounced on that oc- 
casion by Daniel Webster. 

And as he returned to 

Boston, he stood by the 

famous elm-tree, which 

still stands on Cambridge 

common, under whose 

wide-spreading branches 

General Washington first 

took command of the American army after the 

battle of Bunker Hill. 




OLD ELM-TREE. 



IMMIGRANTS FROM EUROPE. 20I 

When at last Lafayette bade farewell to this 
country, the good ship " Brandywine " bore him 
back to his home in France. It was at the battle 
of Brandywine that this "little boy," as the 
British had called him, was wounded. 

Louisiana had come into the Union at the be- 
ginning of the war. After the war came Indiana, 




Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, Missouri, 
Arkansas and Michigan, and in 1837 there were 
twenty-six stars on the American flag. 

Meanwhile thousands were passing every month 
through Pittsburg on their way to the great 
West, and for a while it seemed that the East 
would lose all its people. But the East really had 
no cause to be afraid. It was sending out colonies 
to the West to build up new industries which, in 
a few years, would add to the wealth of the East. 

Then while all these thousands were going 
West, many more thousands were coming to 
Eastern shores, from across the sea. 

The British soldiers, who had fought in the 



202 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

war of 1812, when they returned home, told 
wonderful stories of this little Republic. 

The laboring classes of Great Britain were 
glad to hear of such a country. They were 
burdened with taxes and oppressed by the rich, 
so that very few had land of their own. 

They came in ship-loads from England, Ire- 
land, and Scotland. 

Carpenters, masons, cloth-weavers, black- 
smiths, renters on the great estates of the noble- 
men, sold what they had and came to find homes 
of their own in America. 

The prosperity of the new land astonished 
these people from the old country. 

" This be a main queer country," said a York- 
shire man who came with his family. " This be 
a main queer country; for I have asked the 
-:, , laboring folks along the 

-fe #' / I'oad how many meals 
^ they eat in a day, and 
they all said three and 
sometimes four, if they 
wanted them. 
'''^■^-- - " We have but two back 

PIONEER LIFE. . „ , , , , 

m hngland, and they are 
scanty enough; and only think, sir, many of 
these people asked me to eat and drink with 




THE TRADE OF THE WEST. 



203 



them. We can't do so in Yorkshire, sir, for we 
have not enough for ourselves." 

There were so many who wanted to come to 
America, that the cost of the passage was high; 
so that only the well-to-do workmen could afford 
to make the voyage. 

One week brought fifteen hundred to five 
American ports. The next week came only 
eight hundred; but the very next week came 
one thousand and twenty-seven. And these 
industrious people kept on coming in such large 
numbers that the English newspapers said Parli- 
ament should make laws to prevent them from 
leaving England. So, you see, America troubled 
Great Britain in peace as much as in war. 

The roads were very bad all over the United 
States, and the lakes and rivers were not long 
enough to carry the trade from west to east. 
But the Ohio and the Mississippi took boats to 
the South, so that New Orleans had most of 
the traffic from the West. 

Foreign ships lay in the docks at New Orleans, 
while the steamboats plied busily up and down 
the Mississippi. The farmers of the Western 
valleys brought their flour, tobacco, beef, and 
pork to New Orleans to exchange for the pro- 
ducts of Europe and the West Indies. 



204 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The Eastern cities, New York, Philadelphia, 
and Baltimore, were eager to get the trade which 
was fast making New Orleans the greatest city 
in the Union. 

New York now planned a canal to unite the 
Hudson with Lake Erie, and a canal to join 
Lake Erie with the Ohio river. 

Philadelphia and Baltimore followed New 
York with plans for canals and turnpikes to the 
West. After eight years of building, the Erie 
Canal was opened for boats in 1825. This was 
a great event. A long line of vessels were pro- 
pelled down from Lake Erie to the ocean, where 
Governor Clinton poured a keg of water from 
the lake into the ocean as a sign of their union; 

and a busy trade 
was soon carried 
[ ^ t I ^^^S^trffi^ on between the 
^i f^^WS We St a n d N e w 

i^ygs^s^^^^^^^^^^^^^ York City. 



Then the Na- 

FIRST RAILROAD. . , y-i i 

tional Koad was 
built from Maryland to Indiana. But before this 
great turnpike had become of much use, the 
Baltimore and Ohio railroad was built, and this 
quickly gave Western trade to Baltimore. 

The first spadeful of dirt for a railroad was 



THE FIRST TELEGRAPH. 205 

turned over by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the 
last living signer of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. As the venerable old gentleman threw the 
dirt from his spade, he said he considered the 
act only second to signing the Declaration; and 
if you stop a moment to think how much the 
railways have done for the people of the United 
States, you may agree with him. 

After the railroad came the telegraph. The 
inventor of the telegraph as it now is, was Samuel 
F. B. Morse. He struggled many years to get his 
invention tried. Sometimes he was ragged. "My 
stockings want to see my mother," 
he said once. He thought how 
neatly his mother would darn the ,0-tr^?^ 

holes; and he must have thought #7| !^ Jx 

very often of her good home-made '^^\ - W 

bread and butter, for he was very ^^^w 

often without food. s. f. b. morse. 

After a long time, Congress appropriated 
money to build a telegraph from Washington to 
Baltimore, and in 1844 the first message, " What 
hath God wrought!" was sent. 

At first people would not believe the messages, 
until the mail brought letters saying that they 
were true. It is said that one man asked how 
large a bundle could be sent over the wires, and 



206 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

that a woman who saw a telegraph pole put in 
front of her door, said she supposed she could 
not say a word now without everybody knowing 
what she said. She thought the wire alone would 
carry news. 

A little while before this, the Subtreasury of 
the United States was established where money 
belonging to the United States could be kept. 

This was much safer than putting the money 
into private banks all over the country. Some 
of you may have seen the Treasury building in 
Washington and the iron vaults where the gold 
and silver are kept, and where a small army of 
men are busy counting and taking care of the 
nation's money. 

The intelligence of the people had been de- 
veloping during these years. Noah Webster's 
Dictionary of the English Language was a great 
aid to speaking the mother tongue correctly. 
Penny newspapers were widely distributed. The 
poems of Longfellow, Whittier, and Bryant, the 
stories of James Fenimore Cooper and Wash- 
ington Irving were very popular, and helped to 
win the favor of our cousins across the sea. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST. 

Meanwhile during all this national success the 
West was coming to the front. Clay of Ken- 
tucky had won applause for his eloquence, and 
Jackson of Tennessee had been made President 
for his bravery. 

In 1840, the West put up another candidate 
for honors. When William Henry Harrison was 
named as a candidate for President, some people 
made sport of him. 

He was born in Virginia; but because he had 
lived a long time in the West as a soldier fight- 
ing the Indians, and as a governor of the terri- 
tory of Indiana, they said he was from the "back- 
woods" and they called him the "Log Cabin" 
candidate. 

This pleased the farmers. Log cabins became 
the fashion and were carried in processions, 
decorated with coonskins; and hard cider, which 
was the farmer's drink, was passed freely around. 
" Old Tip " was a term of endearment, because 
of General Harrison's victory over the Indians 
at Tippecanoe in Indiana. John Tyler of Vir- 



207 



208 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

ginia was the farmers' candidate for Vice-Presi- 
dent; SO "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too," sang the 
men in homespun, and, sure-enough, Harrison 
and Tyler were elected by an immense vote. 

But only a month after General Harrison was 
inaugurated, he died, and Vice-President Tyler 
became President for the rest of the term. 

The States of Florida and Texas were ad- 
mitted into the Union in 1845; so that now there 
were twenty-eight stars in our flag. 

During the administration of President Polk, 
there was war with Mexico on account of the 
boundary lines of Texas. The 
Americans were victorious in that 
war. A treaty of peace with Mex- 
ico gave the territories of New 
Mexico and California to the 
United States. Two more States, 
^ Iowa and Wisconsin, were admit- 

JAMES K. POI.K. 11- 1 • 1 • • 

ted durmg this administration. 
Soon after California became a part of the 
United States, news came of wonderful gold dis- 
coveries in that territory. In the year 1849, there 
was great excitement over the gold mines. 
Workshops were shut up, fertile farms were 
deserted and thousands started on the journey 
to the Pacific coast. Long- lines of white-covered 




OUR FIRST WORLD'S FAIR. 



209 




wagons, called "prairie schooners," made their 
way from the Mississippi river to San Fran- 
cisco. At Salt Lake City, 
Utah, where a peculiar 
religious sect called Mor- 
mons, lived, the weary 
travelers halted for sup- 

T 1 J. ^ ^ PRAIRIE SCHOONER. 

phes and rest, in two 

years San Francisco became a city of fifteen 
thousand inhabitants; and in 1S50 California 
added the thirty-first star to our flag. 

In 185 1 England took the lead of all nations 
in giving the first World's Fair, to which the 
whole world was invited. In the wonderful 
Crystal Palace, the United States secured, in 
proportion to her exhibits, more prizes than any 
other country. Her carriages, pianos, india- 
rubber goods, reaping-machines, life-boats and 
engineer's tools attracted much attention. 

The beautiful marble statue of the Greek 
Slave, by Hiram Powers, gave some idea of 
what young America might some day do in art. 

There was so much benefit to England and to 
the world from this Fair that the United States 
invited all nations to join with her in an exhibit. 

New York was chosen as the World's Fair 
City. The population of New York at that time 



2IO THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

was five hundred thousand and the population 
of the United States was twenty-six millions. 

The Crystal Palace was declared open to the 
world by President Pierce, on July fourteenth, 
1S53. Foreign nations sent many fine exhibits. 
England seemed to forget her old tremble with 
the colonies and sent a large display' of objects 
in the fine arts and in manufactured articles. 

America ranked well with Europe in her in- 
ventions. There w^ere printing presses, such as 
are now used in small country tov/ns; but at that 
time they were thought to be wonderful for use 
in the largest cities; there was the Morse tele- 
graph, patented fifteen years before; there were 
fire-engines of the hand-pump pattern, which 
were thought to make fires almost harmless. All 
glass and porcelain wares were from abroad; 
America had not learned that she could make 
these things. 

The whole display at New York was thought 
to be wonderful, and the United States was very 
proud of her first World's Fair. 

About this time the foundations were laid for 
the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. It 
was the gift of the noble English chemist, James 
Smithson; its plants and minerals, its books and 
galleries of art were the beginning of like gifts 



THE ATLANTIC CABLE. 



211 




SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



from other men of wealth, which helped to widen 
the thought of the American people. 

The difficulties of the way across the " Great 
Desert," as the land between the Mississippi and 
the coast was called, 
led to plans for a 
Pacific ra i 1 r o ad. 
Engineers were sent 
out to make surveys 
for the best route to 
the coast. 

Many people ridi- 
culed the idea of putting a railroad through such 
a vast country, overrun by roving bands of In- 
dians. They said it could never be done. 

But these same people had said the same thing 
about the telegraph, which very soon reached 
such perfection that it could tick its messages 
under the sea. In 1850 a telegraph cable was 
laid from New York to Newfoundland, and in 
1858 the Atlantic cable joined the Old World to 
the New. A message of peace and good-will from 
Queen Victoria came surging across under the 
sea, and was answered by President Buchanan. 

It was during President Buchanan's adminis- 
tration that Minnesota, Oregon, and Kansas 
came into the union. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. 

While the United States as a nation was be- 
coming more prosperous every year, a great 
trouble was brewing between the sections on the 
question of slavery. 

Many causes brought this trouble about. First 
of all, the northern section of the country was 
very different in climate and soil from the south- 
ern. This led to different customs and habits of 
living among the people. 

In the North there were busy manufacturing 
cities, and neat little farms where the farmer 

toiled all day in the 




,M^ 



.s>\ 



Jr 



\^\ 




■'■■ U 






fields with his hired 
help, and sat at the 
same table with him 
to eat; and their 
children attended 
the free public 
schools together. 

In the South there 
were large planta- 
tions, far apart and tilled by gangs of slaves 








'%. \ 



SLAVES AT WORK. 



THE COTTON GIN. 



213 




ELI WHITNEY. 



under the lash of overseers; there were stately 
mansions, standing alone, with only the rude log 
cabins of the negroes and the "poor whites" in 
sight for miles around. These poor whites were 
too proud to work in the fields with 
the slaves; and as there was no 
other way of making a living, they 
became a lazy, half-starved class, 
despised even by the negroes. 

At first, there was little cotton 
in the South. Then Eli Whitney 
invented the cotton gin. It was a machine which 
quickly and cheaply cleaned the cotton for 

market, and its use made the 
cultivation of cotton very 
profitable. 

Many slaves were needed 
to pick in the great fields of 
cotton, to delve in the rice 
swamps, and to hoe in the 
fields of sugar cane. 

So it came about that 
while in the North there 
were few slaves, in the South slaves increased 
until in some States there were more blacks than 
whites. 

There was a feeling in the North that all 




COTTON GIN. 



214 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

slaves should be set free. Slaves escaping from 
their masters were pursued and carried back in 
chains to the South. The courts in many North- 
ern States were kept busy trying to settle dis- 
putes about the ownership of escaped slaves, and 
during the trials very sad stories were told which 
more and more aroused sympathy for the negro. 

Those who favored freeing the slaves were 
called abolitionists. One stormy night, in a back 
street of Boston, a young journalist, William 
Lloyd Garrison, founded the first antislavery 
society. It was not long till there were hundreds 
of such societies throughout the North. Places 
of refuge were established from the northern 
borders of the slave States to Canada. With the 
help of the abolitionists, many fugitive slaves hid 
by day in these places, and traveled by night until 
they reached Canada, when they became free. 

Captain John Brown, of Kansas, lost his life 
in trying to help slaves free themselves. He 
knew well all the mountains of Virginia and just 
where the deep forests and the dark caves were, 
and he planned to hide the slaves until enough 
might get together to fight their way to freedom. 

At last the feeling between the North and the 
South became so bitter that seven Southern 
States withdrew from the Union. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



215 




These States established a government of 
their own, which they called the "Confederate 
States of America, "and they elect- 
ed Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, 
President. Richmond, Virginia, 
was made the capital city. They 
seized several forts and arsenals 
in the South, but Fort Sumter 
and some others held out. jefferson davis. 

By this time, the President of the United States 
was Abraham Lincoln, a man who has a place 
equal with Washington in the hearts of the 
American people. 

Lincoln was born on the twelfth of February, 
1809, in a log cabin in Kentucky. His parents 
were very poor. They belonged 
to the class of "poor whites" in 
the South who had been pushed 
out of employment and driven to 
the hills by the system of negro 
slavery. They moved to Indiana 
when little Abe was seven years 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. qM; but the father did not know 
what it was to be industrious, and so they kept 
on living from hand to mouth. Very early, Abe 
Lincoln began chopping wood and splitting rails 
to earn a livelihood. 




21 6 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The boy had a great and busy mind. At night, 
when the work of the day was over, the spelHng 
book, the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress or /Esop's 
Fables was read half the night by the blaze of 
the logs in the rude fire-place. He read these 
few books over and over. After a while he got 
the lives of Washington and Henry Clay, and 
these he read until he knew them almost by heart. 
He had the strength of a giant, and for a time 
navigated fiatboats down the Ohio and the Mis- 
sissippi rivers to New Orleans. When he was 
twenty-one years old he moved with his parents 
to Illinois. When an Indian war broke out in 
Illinois, Lincoln volunteered to fight and was 
chosen captain of his company. He was a 
great favorite because he was so strong and 
witty and good-natured. While still a raw, 
awkward boy he began to study law. After 
many struggles he began the practice of law in 
Springfield, and was soon very successful. It is 
said that he once defended the son of a poor 
widow who was accused of murder. The witness 
was an enemy of the boy and when questioned 
by Lincoln, said he had seen the murder by moon- 
light. Then Lincoln showed by the almanac 
that there was no moonlight on that night, and 
so the boy was set free. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR. 21/ 

After a while, Abraham Lincohi was elected to 
Congress from Illinois. He was opposed to 
slavery, and often spoke on that subject. 

In i860, he was nominated for President and 
was elected. 

When he entered upon his duties as President 
seven States had already seceded from the Union, 
He saw that to divide this great nation into two 
nations meant wars and jealousies for all time to 
come. It meant standing armies kept to fight 
each other. It became his duty to preserve the 
Union; but he looked upon the South as a father 
would look upon a rebellious child, and he hesi- 
tated to send an army against it. 

He saw that one reason of the trouble was that 
the two sections of the country did not under- 
stand each other. You have read how the great 
roads led east and west. There was very little 
travel north and south; and hence the people 
did not mingle together very much. Because 
they did not understand each other, they became 
jealous, just as if they were two separate nations, 
instead of one nation. Then, too, many books 
were published both north and south, which mis- 
represented the manners and customs of the 
other section, and thus increased a growing 
prejudice. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE CIVIL WAR. 

President Lincoln refused to acknowledge the 
Confederacy as a government. South Carolina 
claimed that Fort Sumter in the harbor of 
Charleston belonged to the South; but the presi- 
dent declared that the fort belonged to the 
United States and should be defended, if neces- 
sary, by a Union army. The Southern troops 
fired on Fort Sumter; and so the war was begun 
in April, 1861. 

There was great excitement both North and 
South. At the President's call to arms a hundred 
thousand men enlisted in the North in a few 
days. Trains were busy carrying them to the 
battlefields; mothers and wives and sisters were 
in tears as they parted, many for the last time, 
from their loved ones; flags were fiying, drums 
were beating, and there was hurrah and hurry 
everywhere. 

After the fall of Fort Sumter, the new govern- 
ment hoped that all the Southern States would 
unite in the common cause, but only four other 
States joined the Confederacy, making eleven in 

318 



BATTLES ON LAND AND SEA. 219 

all. They were South Carolina, Mississippi, Flor- 
ida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, 
Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. 

In some of these States the people were divided 
in sentiment. In Virginia, the northwestern part 
remained loyal to the Union, and formed a new 
State, which was afterwards admitted as West 
Virginia. 

The new government hoped, too, that England 
would aid them in war. The great English manu- 
factories received their supply of cotton from the 
South, and the war would cause a cotton famine. 
But England had emancipated all her own slaves, 
and had for many years been sending out fleets 
to stop the slave trade of Africa, and could not 
offer aid to the Confederacy, which had slavery 
as its corner-stone. 

So the South continued the war alone. At 
last, the Union armies marched to the South, and 
for four years there raged a terrible civil war. 
Sometimes one side and sometimes the other 
was victorious. At Bull Run, in Virginia, the 
Union troops were defeated. On the sea, the 
Confederate ship Merrimac sunk the Union ship 
Cumberland. Then the Union ship Monitor de- 
feated the Merrimac and sent her limping off to 
a harbor for repairs. 



220 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The Union forces captured Fort Henry and 
Fort Donaldson in Tennessee, and took many 
prisoners. 

New Orleans was captured in 1862, and Vicks- 
burg in 1863. Thus the Mississippi river was 
open for the North. It was the aim of the Con- 
federates to carry the war into the North, but 
their defeat at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania forced 
the Southern troops back into their own terri- 
tory, and the rest of the war was carried on in 
the South. 

There were many brave exploits on sea and 
on land about which you will read in another and 
larger book. 

There were great sufferings in the prisons 
and in the hospitals, where noble women nursed 
the sick and dying soldiers. 

The most of the war, as I have said, was carried 
on in the South, and all the ports of the Confed- 
erate States were blockaded so that ships could 
not come in with clothing and food. Shoes and 
clothes were worn to rags; paper was gone, so 
that envelopes were turned inside out to use a 
second time, and letters were written on wall 
paper. Heavy woolen curtains were taken from 
the windows to be made into clothing for the 
soldiers. Houses were burned; but so devoted 




^- 



THE CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR. 221 

were the people to their cause that they were 
willing to make any sacritice. 

At last the capital city of Richmond was taken, 
and on the ninth of April, 1S65. at Appomatox 
Court house, the Confederate 
General Lee surrendered his 
army to General Grant, and in a 
few days the whole South had 
laid down its arms. Before the T\^ -_- 
taking of Richmond, President * Vff-./' *j 
Lincoln was inaugurated for his gex. r. e. lee. 
second term in ofhce. In his speech he used the 
following beautiful words: " With malice toward 
none, with charity for all, with 
firmness in the right as God 
gives us to see the right, let us 
strive on to tinish the work we 
are in; to bind up the nation's 
wounds; to care for him who 
GEx. r. s. GRANT, shall havc borne the battle, and 
for his widow and his orphans; to do all which 
may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting 
peace among ourselves, and with all nations." 

And now the most terrible civil war in the 
history of the world was over, and peace had 
come again. 

The war had taught manv lessons. It had 




222 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

proved that the people of the United States 
were as patriotic as they had been in the Revolu- 
tion. Both sides thought they were in the right, 
and both had sacrificed everything that was dear 
in defense of what they thought was the right. 
When such a people are united, as they now 
are, no foreign enemy can overcome them. 

With leaders like General Grant and General 
Lee, each side learned to respect the other. 

Slavery was abolished; and with the wisdom 
that has come with the years, the South would 
hardly wish it back again. 

The whole country welcomed peace. But in 
five days after General Lee surrendered, a crime 
was committed which cast its shadow upon every 
home. President Lincoln was shot by an 
assassin. The whole North was in mourning. 
The South had lost its best friend, who would 
perhaps have known better than 
any other how to silence the voice 
of discord and to bind up the 
broken hearts of the people. 

A great funeral procession fol- 
lowed the remains of the honored 
ANDREW JOHNSON, aud bcloved President to their 
last resting place in Springfield, Illinois. Vice- 
President Johnson became the President. 




ALASKA. 



223 



The armies disbanded. The States came back 
one by one into the union and the onward march 
of a united people began again. 

In 1867, the great territory of Alaska was pur- 
chased from the Russian Government. You will 
find it in the northwest corner of North America 
with only a line of ocean, called Bering Strait, 
between it and Asia. 

It is a land of snow and ice and great moun- 
tains, many of which have not yet been explored. 
Alaska contains rich deposits of precious metals 
and vast forests of valuable timber. Along the 
coast, where the climate is softened by the sea 
breeze, lie herds of shining seals whose fur 
brings millions of dollars every 
year; and there are other valu- 
able fur-bearing animals there. 

A queer race of fisherfolk and 
hunters, called Eskimos, were 
added to the population of the 
United States by the purchase 
of Alaska. These people have 
coarse black hair and small 
black eyes which are almost hidden in their 
fat, broad faces. They have short, thick bodies; 
and the men and women dress much alike in 
the fur of seals and reindeer. 




ESKIMO. 



:24 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Some live in cellars dug out of the ground, 
where light comes through a thin skin stretched 
over a round open space at the top. 

Sometimes they have round huts, made from 
solid cakes of ice, fitted neatly together, with a 
thin sheet of ice for a window. That is only in 
winter time; for in the late spring, these ice- 
houses begin to drip with water, and so are not 
comfortable dwellings. Some live in log huts 
with earthen floors, where beds of sod covered 
with skins serve both for sitting and sleeping. 

Except along the coast, it is very cold in 
Alaska most of the year; but not even the chil- 
dren mind zero weather. They play out of doors 
with snow-houses and ice-blocks. 

When friends meet, these Eskimos rub noses 
together instead of kissing, and they have a 
great many other queer customs. But not all of 
the inhabitants of Alaska are so uncivilized. 
Along the coast and on some of the islands the 
climate is mild, and the people have long been 
under the influence of the Russians. They dwell 
in villages, where missionaries have established 
schools in which both the Russian and the Eng- 
lish languages are taught. They have ceased to 
dress in skins, and wear " store-clothes" and live 
much like the peasants of Russia. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

FROM lS6S TO iSq2. 

After the war of the Rebellion, the hero of the 
hour was Ulysses S. Grant, Commander of the 
Union Armies, and he was elected President in 
1868. West Virginia had been made a State 
during the war; the last of the Southern States 
now came back into the Union; and the negroes, 
who had been set free by a proclamation of 
President Lincoln, as well as those freed by an 
amendment to the Constitution, were given by 
Congress the right to vote. 

The enormous debt of the war was soon much 
reduced, and new industries were developed both 
in the North and the South; so that except for 
the sad hearts mourning their dead, the evil 
effects of the war were hardly felt. 

The railroad which joined the Atlantic Ocean 
with the Pacific was finished with great cere- 
mony; the last tie was bound with silver and, 
to fasten it to its place, California sent a spike 
of gold, Nevada one of silver, and Arizona one 
of silver and iron; and soon two engines were 



225 



226 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

facing each other, one from the East and one 
from the West — in the language of Bret Harte: 

"Facing on a single track, 
Half the world behind each back. 

Said the Engine from the East: 
'Listen! where Atlantic beats 
Shores of snow and summer heats; 
Where the Indian autumn skies 
Paint the woods with wampum dyes, 
I have chased the flying sun.' 

Said the Western Engine: ' Phew ! ' 
And a long, low whistle blew. 
' Come, now, really that's the oddest 
Talk for one so very modest. 
You brag of your East ! You do ? 
Why, I bring the East to you ! 
All the Orient, all Cathay 
Find through me the shortest way.' " 

Telegraph wires had followed the iron track, 
and when the spikes were driven in near Ogden, 
where the Eastern and Western divisions of the 
road met, the story of the event sped quickly 
from one end of the country to the other, and 
then hurried across the sea to England and to 
Holland, to France and to Spain. 

Thus, at last, the passage to India and China 
was found, which Columbus and the Cabots and 
Hudson and Cartier and so many other bold 
sailors had tried to find; but it was not a north- 



SYMPATHY UNITES THE PEOPLE 22/ 

west passage by way of the icebergs, nor was it 
a southwest passage through the tropical region 
of South America. The way lay straight through 
fertile plains, soon to blossom as the rose, and 
over mountains teeming with the gold and silver 
for which these men had searched in vain. 

In 1S71 a great fire broke out in Chicago, which 
nearly destroyed the city, and many thousands 
were homeless on the shores of Lake Michigan. 
The whole country, south as well as north, 
united in rendering aid, and millions of dollars 
were sent to the stricken people. 

The following year a fire visited Boston, 
which was almost as great as that of Chicago, 
and again all the States sent aid to the sufferers. 

A few years afterwards the cities of the 
South were scourged with the yellow fever, and 
over twenty thousand people died before winter 
came to stop the plague. Money for the needy 
poured in from the North to the South and 
noble-hearted nurses from the Northern States 
sacrificed their lives to attend the sick. And all 
these calamities united the sympathies of the 
different sections of the country better than 
almost anything else could have done. 

Then, in 1876, something else happened to 
make the North and South unite more closely; 



228 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




and that was when all the United States joined 
together to celebrate the one hundredth anniver- 
sary of their national freedom. 

Philadelphia, where Washington and Adams 
and Jefferson and other great men of the Revolu- 
tion had met to- 
gether, and where 
the Declaration of 
Independence had 
been written, was 
chosen as aWorld's 
Fair City; and you 
may be sure that 
cENTENNiAi, BUILDING. ^he old liberty bell 

was given a place of honor on this occasion. 

The nations of Europe sent their products to 
help make this event a success. Even England 
joined in this celebration. Does it not seem a 
little odd that England should join in celebrating 
the loss of her ovv^n colonies? 

But England now looked upon the United 
States as a great nation with which she wanted 
to carry on commerce; and, to show her good 
will. Queen Victoria sent embroideries made by 
her own hand. 

At this second World's Fair, there were steam 
printing-presses, and the Krupp guns, and the 



THE CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION. 



229 




Howe sewing machines, and reaping and mow- 
ing machines, and many things which were not 
dreamed of at the World's Fair in 
1853. Photographs had taken the 
place of the old-fashioned tin-types, 
in which our grandmothers look 
smilingly out from under their high 
scoop bonnets. 

Electricity was hinted at in the ^^^'^^ ^°'^^- 
telegraph; but Edison, the " wizard of Menlo 
Park," had only just commenced his wonderful 
discoveries in electrical science. 

In many exhibits the Old World excelled the 
New; but so great had been the progress of the 
United States in all of the indus- 
tries, that the people were very 
proud of themselves. 

Colorado, rich in silver and 
gold, was admitted into the Union 
as the Centennial State. 

The peace of the last year of 
President Grant's administration was disturbed 
by a war with the Sioux Indians west of the 
Missouri river. The bustling gold-diggers in 
the Black Hills disturbed the quiet of the Indian 
hunting-grounds, and, encouraged by their chiefs, 
Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, and Spotted Tail, 




THOS. A. EDISON. 



230 THE STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the Indians held war-dances and prepared to 
massacre all the white settlers. 

A body of troops marched against the Indians 
and forced them to flee to the north, into the 
British Possessions; but, in a terrible battle on 
the Little Big Horn River, the brave General 
Custer and all his men were killed. 

In these years of progress for the white race, 
the northern Indians have remained the same. 



INDIANS FIGHTING. 



Their tents are no more changed than the 
robins' nests; they hunt and fish; and when these 
sports are over, they lie in their tents, smoking 
their filthy pipes. 

But there are schools established by the gov- 
ernment for the Indian children in these reser- 
vations of the North, where they are taught to 



THE EDUCATION OF THE INDIANS. 



231 



Speak, read, and write the English language; 
and where the girls learn to sew and cook, and 
the boys learn farming, printing, blacksmithing, 
and other trades. Once a year, teachers go out 
among the Indians and bring back as many 
children to their schools as they can persuade 
the fathers and mothers to send. In the years 
to come these little boys and girls may become 
civilized and stand side by side with 3^ou as 
citizens. That is what the United States is try- 
ing to teach them to do. 

And there is much reason to think that the 
government will succeed in this; for the Indians 
farther south, in Indian Territory, have reached 
a high state of civilization within the last fifty 
years. They have many schools and churches, 
and newspapers, and they live 
under written laws of their own. 

General James A. Garfield, who 
was elected President after Ruth- 
erford B. Hayes, was assassinated 
a few months later by a stranger 
who was a disappointed politican. 

Garfield had been a poor boy, like so many 
others who have won for themselves high places 
in public affairs. His ancestors were Puritans 
who came to America with Governor Win- 




J. A. GARFIELD. 



232 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



throp; and from father to son was handed down 
a strong, heroic character, which is a greater gift 
than all the money in the treasury of kings. 

James was born and brought up on a farm in 
Ohio. His father died when he was two years 
old and left a log cabin, a rude log barn, and a 
farm of about twenty acres of cultivated ground, 
to his wife and four children. 

The barefoot boy, whether following the plow, 
or chopping cordwood, or driving horses on the 
tow-path of a canal, was always honest and in- 
dustrious. After many struggles for an educa- 
tion, Garfield was graduated from Williams 
College in Massachusetts. 

Wherever he served the public in after life — 
in the Mexican War, in the Civil War, or as a 
United States Senator, General Garfield was a 
hero. After a lingering illness, he died from the 
effects of the assassin's bullet, 
and his body, like that of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, was borne to the 
grave surrounded by a grief- 
stricken nation. 

Vice-President Chester A. 
Arthur, of New York, now be- 

CHKSTER A. ARTHUR. t-. • i r ^ c 

came President tor the rest oi 
the term; and he was succeeded by Grover Cleve-. 




NEW STARS IN THE FLAG. 



233 



land, of New York. Thomas A. Hendricks, the 
Vice-President, died soon after the inauguration 
and was buried with honors at IndianapoHs. 

In 1889, North Dakota and South Dakota, 
Montana, and Washington were admitted to the 
Union. In the following year, Idaho and Wyo- 
ming were admitted. 

You will see by the map that these great States 
are exactly in the path of the Lewis and Clarke 
expedition sent out by President Jefferson. The 
country, once the home of the buffalo and the 
bear and the bounding deer, is now occupied by 
a great and prosperous people. 

Wyoming, when it became a State, gave woman 
the right to vote on all public questions, just as 



orado gave woman this right, too. W^^ iS 



Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana, 

became President after President .' ^ *^^^ 

Cleveland. He is the grandson S^ 

of President William Henry f ^/^ * 

HI . 1 £ BENT. HARRISON, 

arrison, and great-grandson or •' 

one of the signers of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. One of the most noted events of his admin- 
istration was the meeting of the South American 
Republics in Washington to form a closer com- 
mercial union between the two Americas. 




CHAPTER XXXVI. 

THE world's COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 

Grover Cleveland was elected President for a 
second term in 1892. During his administration 
Utah has been admitted to the 
Union as the forty-fifth State. 
In i8q3 occurred one of the 
greatest events of modern times. 
^^ ^ . ^^ . This was the celebration of the 
"" 400th anniversary of the dis- 

GROVER CLEVELAND j- a • ^j^, , , 

covery or America. I he whole 
world joined in this celebration. 

Just think what it means to have the whole 
world working together at one thing. There had 
been other World's Fairs, to be sure; but there 
had never been anything equal to this. 

Congress chose Chicago as the World's Fair 
City and gave large sums of money to help make 
the Exposition a success. Grounds were laid 
off more than three times larger than those of 
any other World's Fair. 

Then there was a tremendous number of invi- 
tations sent out. For aught we know, some of 
them are still sticking to icebergs off the coast 



ALL THE WORLD CELEBRATES. 235 

of Greenland and some may still be staring 
down from the old Chinese wall to puzzle the 
tradespeople as they pass on their way to Pekin. 

There were so many posters sent out inviting 
the people to come to the World's Columbian 
Exposition, that even in the remotest islands 
of the sea people knew about it, and all nations 
decided to send representatives to Chicago. 

This Columbian celebration was something 
like a great Thanksgiving dinner to which grand- 
fathers and grandmothers and uncles and aunts 
and cousins had been invited. If one member 
of a large family goes off into a far country to 
make his own living, and he prospers and builds 
for himself a magnificent place, and then after 
many years, invites his relations to a Thanksgiv- 
ing dinner, they are all pretty sure to come to 
see whether the fine things they have heard 
about him are true. It was in much the same 
way that the nations of the earth came to see 
how America was getting along. 

Besides, they thought that this rich young 
America might want to buy some of the jewels 
and embroideries and velvets and silks and laces 
and rare pictures and other innumerable objects 
which the older Europe and Asia had been busy 
making. 



236 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



And SO it happened that the "White City" 
at Chicago became the World's market-place. 

The Exposition buildings were called the 
"White City," because the buildings were made 
of a material which looked like white marble. 




WORI^D'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION AT CHICAGO. 

The domes of gold, the fountains tossing their 
spray into the air from the finger-tips of statues, 
the wonderful arches and gardens and shimmer- 
ing lakes made the spot seem like fairy-land. 

And, indeed, it was all like the work of fairies. 
Invisible people talked in sweet voices and sang 
beautiful songs; monsters swam about in water 



OUR NATION OF TO-DAY. 237 

and air where only a moment before one saw 
nothing at all; night came on and in a flash there 
was light more dazzling than the sun; bridges 
that looked like cobwebs hung in the air, yet so 
strong were they that iron monsters of steam 
could not break them down; and there were 
looms for spinning so deftly and swiftly that the 
cross old god-mother, Xecessit3% was at her wit's 
end to find some more difficult tasks for the 
American Princess to do. All these and many 
other transformations in the fairy-land of the 
"White City"' were wrought by the magic wand 
of Science. This same science made it possible 
for the humblest working man to travel in rail- 
road coaches which Ferdinand and Isabella could 
not have bought with all the gold of Peru. 

But of all this exhibition, made by the people 
for the people, the greatest study was that of 
the American people themselves. 

Here was a nation of over sixty millions of 
people dwelling at peace together. Fifty-one 
states and territories were united in one great 
government, where each state has a voice in 
making the laws, where public schools give the 
poor an equal chance with the rich, and where 
churches open their doors to every passer-by. 

Out in the waters of Lake Michigan floated 



238 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



three outlandish ships; their awkward prows and 
lofty poops and clumsy yards showed them to be 
of a different age from the light crafts all about 
them in the harbor. They were copies of the 

Santa Maria, the 
Pinta, and the Niiia 
which had crossed 
the unknown sea 
four hundred 
years before. 

Perhaps we might 
say that these ships 
represented the 
ignorance and su- 
perstition of the 
Past. While the 
great " WMi i t e 
City," on the shore of the lake, with lights from 
thousands of electric fires shining down upon 
the assembled peoples of the earth, represented 
the enlightened Present, which the brave men 
and women about whom you have read in this 
little book helped to make what it is. Then let 
us hope that this Present, beautiful as it seems, 
is but the beginning of a yet more enlightened 
Future of which you yourselves are to be a part 
in the years to come. 




BARTHOLDI'S STATUE OF LIBERTY, 
NEW YORK HARBOR. 



INDEX. 



Acadia, 43, 131, 130. 

Adams, John, 180. 

Alaska, 223. 

Allen, Ethan, 176. 

Alhambra, 17. 

Americus Vespucius, 28-29. 

Andre, Maj., 163. 

Arnold, Benedict, 162. 

Balboa, 29-30. 

Baltimore, I,ord, 64-65. 

Bjarni, 9-10. 

Boone, Daniel, 176-177. 

Boston, 74, 142, 146. 

Bradford, Governor, 72. 

Braddock, General Edward, 128-129. 

Brandywine, 158, 201. 

Bryant, William CuUen, 206. 

Buchanan, Jaines, 211. 

Bunker Hill, 149, 200. 

Burgoyne, General, 149, 151. 

Cable, The Atlantic, 211. 

Cabot John, 38. 

Cabot, Sebastian, 39-40. 

Calhoun, John C, 192-193. 

California, Gold in, 208. 

Calverts, The, 64-65. 

Canada, 164. 

Canals, 204. 

Carolina, 66-67. 

Carpenters' Hall, 145. 

Carteret, Philip, 80. 

Cartier, Jacques, 41-42. 

Carver, John, 71. 

Centennial, 228. 

Champlain, Samuel, 43, 136. 

Charleston, 68. 

Chesapeake Bay, 64. 

Church Services, 95-96. 

China, 173-174. 

Civil War, 218-221. 

Clay, Henry, 191-192. 

Clermont, The, 187. 

Cleveland, Grover, 232, 334. 

Clinton, General Henry, 149. 

Columbus, 12-27. 

Concord, Battle of, 148. 

Congress, First Continental, 145, 

Confederacies, Indian, 10.5-109. 

Confederate .States, 218-219. 

Constitution of United States, 167. 

Coplev, John, 161, 166. 

Cornwallis, 163-164. 

Cortez, 32-33. 

Costumes, 47, 50-52, 93, 121, 171. 

Cotton, .58, 213. 

Creek Indians, 108. 

Crockett, Davy, 197-198. 

Davis, Jefferson, 215, 

Deerfield, 120. 

De Leon, Ponce, 31-32. 

De Narvaez, 33. 



De Soto, ,33-37. 

Drake, Sir Francis, 54-55. 

Dutch, 48-53, 81-83. 

Edison, Thomas A., 329. 

Elm-Tree, 200. 

Emancipation Proclamation, 326. 

Endicott, John, 74. 

Ericson, Leif, 10-11. 

Expedition , Lewis and Clarke, 182-1 8 1 . 

Fairfax, Lord, 125. 

FaneuilHall, 151. 

Federal Hall, 170, 180. 

Fever, Yellow, 227. 

Fires, 227. 

Florida, Purchase of, 199. 

Fort Crown Point, 130, 134, 149. 

Fort Detroit, 136. 

Fort Duquesne, 126, 133. 

Fort Niagara, 134. 

Fort Pitt, 133. 

Fort Sumter, 218. 

Fort Ticonderoga. 134, 149. 

Fort West Point, 162. 

Fort William Henry, 131. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 124, 140-141, 1,5.V 

157, 167. 
French, 39-45, 117-118, 124. 
Fulton, Robert, 187. 
Fur Trade, 45-47, 49, 73, 75, 123. 
Garfield, James A., 230-231. 
Garrison, William Lloyd, 214. 
Genoa, 12. 

Gettysburg, Battle of, 220. 
Gist, Christopher, 132. 
Grant, U. S., 231, 225, 229-230. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 173. 

Hancock, John, 154. 

Harrison, Benjamin, 233. 

Harrison, William Henry, 186-187, 207. 

Henry, Patrick, 140. 

Highlanders, 133. 

Homes, 94-95, 98. 

Hooker, Thomas, 76. 

Houston, Sam., 197, 

Howe, Elias, 239. 

Howe, General, 149. 

Hudson, Henry, 48-49. 

Immigrants, 184-185, 201. 203, 309. 
Independence, Declaration of, 153-154. 
Indians, 46-47, 65, 73, 77, 85, 110-113, 

119-120, 132, 229-231. 
Indian Territorv, 199. 
Iroquois, 114-116", 155. 

Jackson, Andrew, 178, 197-198. 
Jamestown, 60-63. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 181-185, 189. 
Johnson, Andrew, 222. 
Jones, Paul, 160-161. 
Joliet, 44. 



240 INDEX, 

Kentucky, 176. 

King Charles I., 74. 

Kiug Charles II., 66. 

King Charles v., 33. 

King Ferdinand, 17-26. 

King George II., \22, 127. 

King George III., 138. 10.5. 

King Henry VII., 38. 

King James I., 59. 

King John of Portugal, 15, 

King Louis XIV., 45. 

King Louis XVI., 45. 

King Philip, 100-103, 

Lafavette, Marquis de, 158, 16'', 200. 

La Salle, 44. 

Lawrence, James, 195. 

Lee, General Robert K-, 221. 

Lexington, 148. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 215-217, 218-523. 

Locke, John, 66. 

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 200. 

Louisburg, 130, 1,32. 

Louisiana, Purchase of, 181. 

Madison, James, 190. 

Magellan, Ferdinand, ,S0. 

Mandeville, Sir John, 13. 

Maps, 27, 92, 106, 143, 16.5. 

Marion , Francis, 1.59. 

Marquette, Father Jacques, 44. 

Mayflower, 70-73. 

Merrimac, The Ship, 219. 

Mexico, War with, 208. 

Militia, 99. 

Minute-Men, 147. 

Money, 178. 

Monitor, The Ship, 219. 

Monroe, James, 199. 

Montcalm, Marquis de, 130-13.5. 

Monticello, 188. 

Montreal, 43, 135. 

Mormons, The, 209. 

Morse, S. F. B., 205. 

Mount Vernon, 164. 

New Amsterdam, .50. 
New Orleans, 45, 203, 220. 
New York, ,53, 169. 
Northwest Territory, 174-175. 
Norsemen, 11. 

Oglethorpe, James, 88-9L 

Penalties, 63, 99. 
Penn, William, 81, 84-85. 
Pequots, The, 77. 
Perry, Oliver H., 196. 
Philadelphia, 86. 
Pike, Lieut., 184. 
Pilgrims, 70-71. 
Pioneer Life, 185-186. 
Pitt, William, 132-133, 152. 
Plymouth Rock, 71. 
Pocahontas, 61-62. 
Polk, James K., 208, 
Pontiac, i.S6. 
Potato, 58. 
Powhatan, 63. 
Prophet, The, 189. 



Public Schools, 137-138. 

Puritans, 74-75. 

Quakers, 80-84. 

Quebec, 134. 

Queen Elizabeth, 56. 

Queeu Henrietta Maria, 64. 

Queen IsaV)ella, 18. 

Queen Marie Antoinette, 158. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 56-57. 

Railroads, 204, 225-226. 

Randolph, John, 180. 

Rangers, The, 130. 

Religious Toleration, 79, 86. 

Reyere, Paul, 144, 148. 

Richmond, 215. 

Salem, 74. 

Schenectadj', 119. 

Schoolhouses, 96-97. 

Seminoles, 108. 

hlayes, 62, 6.5, 68, 91, 139. 212, 214. 

Smith, Capt. John, 60-62, 69. 

Smithsonian Institution, 210-211. 

Stamps, 139-141. 

Standish, Miles, 71-73. 

Stark, John, 122-123, 131, 149, 159. 

Statue of Liberty, 238. 

Stuyyesant, Peter, 52. 

Swedes in Delaware, 82. 

Tax on Tea, 141-144. 

Tecumseh, 187-188. 

Telegraph, 205. 

Tennessee, 178. 

Thanksgiving, 97. 

Tippecanoe, 187. 

Tobacco, 57, 62. 

Tories, 146. 

Treasury, 206. 

Tyler, John, 208. 

Valley Forge, 158. 

Vermont, 176. 

Verrazano, 40. 

Vicksburg, 230. 

War, Civil, 212-222. 

War, French and Indian, 127-1.35. 

War of Revolution, 137-164. 

War of 1812, 195. 

War, Sioux, 2,30. 

Washington City, 181, 197. 

Washington. George, 124-126, 127 129, 

1,50-1.53, 163, 169, 171-172, 173, 179. 
Wayne, General Anthony, 175. 
Webster, Daniel, 193-194.' 
Webster, Noah, Dictionary of 206. 
West, Benjamin, 161, 166. 
WliiL;s, 146. 
Wliitncy, Kli, 213. 
Whiltier, John Greeuleaf, 206. 
Williams, Roger, 78-79. 
Wiuslow, Edward, 73. 
Winthrop, John, 74. 
Winthrop, John, Jr., 77-78. 
Wolfe. General Janie.s, 134-135. 
World's Fairs. 209, 2-:8, 234-238. 
Yorktown, Cornwnllis Surrenders. 

163-164. 



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